-^) 


Cambridge 


J.  W.  CLARK 


C-ii^' 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/cambridgeOOclariala 


CAMBRIDGE 


^ 


ThK    (iAII.WAV    Ml       I'RIMIV    C'ol.I.KC.K 


CAMBRIDGE 


BY 

J.  W.  CLARK  M.A. 

REGISTRABY  OF  CAMBBIDGE  UNIVEE81TT 


NEW  EDITION 
WITH  FORTY-SIX  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PHILADELPHIA 
J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 

LONDON:    SEELEY  &  CO.  LIMITED 

1908 


^' 


Edinburgh :  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  Hia  Majesty 


stack 
Annex 

-PA 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 
CHAP.   L— THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN      ....  13 

„       II.— THE      STORY      OP     PETERHOUSE  :      THE 

MARKET  HILL 41 

,,     III.— GREAT    ST.    MARY'S    CHURCH  :    CLARE 

HALL:    PEMBROKE  COLLEGE  .  .  70 

„     IV.— THE     EARLY      HISTORY      OF      TRINITY 

COLLEGE 90 

„       v.  — THE    FURTHER    HISTORY    OF    TRINITY 

COLLEGE lie 

„    VI.— king's  college 141 

„  VII.— king's  college  {continued)  .       .       .159 

„  VIIL— ST.  JOHN'S  college  :  CHRIST'S  COLLEGE      188 

„  IX.— COLLEGE  OP  ST.  MARY  MAGDALENE: 
COLLEGE  AND  UNIVERSITY  LIBRA- 
RIES   207 

„  X.— GONVILLE  AND  CAIUS  COLLEGE  : 
QUEENS'  COLLEGE  :  EMMANUEL  COL- 
LEGE   224 

„    XL— JESUS  COLLEGE 247 

„  XII.— SOCIAL     LIFE      AT      CAMBRIDGE  —  "TIS 

SIXTY  YEARS  SINCE'     .  .  .  .265 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


TRINITY  COLLEGE  GATEWAY— Frontispiece. 
From  a  Drawing  by  George  Morroiu. 

AT  PAGE 

GRANTCHESTER  MILL 22 

From  a  Drawing  by  E,  Hull. 

GATE-HOUSE    OP    CAMBRIDGE    CASTLE,     PROM    A 

VIEW  TAKEN  IN  1773 26 

THE  ROUND  CHURCH  ;   OR  CHURCH  OP  THE  HOLY 

SEPULCHRE 30 

From,  a  Drawing  by  A .  Brunet  Debaines. 

INTERIOR    OP    THE     CHURCH    OP     THE     HOLY 

SEPULCHRE 32 

From,  a  Drawing  by  A.  Brunet  Debaines. 

CORPUS  CHRISTI  COLLEGE    AND    THE    TOWER    OP 

ST.  benet's 34 

From  an  Etching  by  A .  Brunet  Debaines. 

CORPUS  BUILDINGS 38 

From,  a  Drawing  by  E.  Hull. 

peterhouse  :  exterior  op   the  south  side 

OP  THE  principal  COURT  ....  42 

From  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussaint. 

THE  OLD  CONDUIT 52 

From  a  Drawing  by  A .  Brunet  Debaines. 

MARKET    hill;    WITH    THE    NEW    CONDUIT    AND 

ST.   MARY'S  CHURCH 56 

From  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussaint. 

B  9 


CAMBRIDGE 


CLARE  COLLEGE 88 

FYom  a  Drawing  by  E.  Hull. 

GATE  OF  ENTRANCE,  CLARE    COLLEGE,  AS  SEEN 

FROM  THE  INTERIOR  OF  THE  COURT        .  .  90 

From  a  Drawing  by  A .  Brunei  Debaines. 

ORIEL     WINDOW      OF     THE     LODGE,     PEMBROKE 
COLLEGE,     NOW      DESTROYED,      FROM      THE 

GARDEN 92 

From  a  DravHng  by  A.  Brunei  Debaines. 

THE  GREAT  COURT  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE      .  .  98 

From  an  Etching)  by  A .  Brunei  Debaines. 

THE  GREAT  GATE  OF   TRINITY  COLLEGE        .  .        100 

From  a  Drawing  by  A.  Brunei  Debaines. 

NEVILE'S  COURT  AT  TRINITY  COLLEGE  .  .        104 

From  an  Etching  by  H.  Toussainl. 

THE    CAM    NEAR    TRINITY    COLLEGE,    WITH    THE 

TOWER  OF  ST.   JOHN'S  CHAPEL  .  .  .        112 

From  an  Etching  by  A.  Brunei  Debaines, 

THE  NEW  COURT  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE  .  .        128 

From  a  Dratcing  by  E.  Hull. 

THE  AVENUE  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE        ...        136 
From  a  Drawing  by  E.  Hull. 

SOUTH  PORCH  OF  KING'S  COLLEGE  CHAPEL  .        152 

From,  a  Draicing  by  A.  Brunei  Debaines. 

king's    COLLEGE    CHAPEL,    FROM    BEYOND    THE 

RIVER 162 

From  an  Baching  by  H.  Toussainl. 

INTERIOR  OF  KING'S  COLLEGE  CHAPEL  .  .       168 

From  an  Etching  by  H.  Toussainl. 

ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 190 

From  an  Etching  by  H.  Toussainl. 

GATE  OF  ENTRANCE,   ST.   JOHN'S  COLLEGE    .  .        194 

From  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussainl. 

10 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

AT  PAGE 

GATEWAY    IN    THE    THIRD  COURT  OP  8T.  JOHN'S       198 

From  a  Drawing  by  A .  Brunei  Debaines. 

THE  OLD  BRIDGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE     .  .        200 

From  a  Drawing  by  A .  Brunei  Debaines. 

THE  GARDEN  OP  CHRIST'S  COLLEGE        ...        204 
From  a  Drauring  by  H.  Toussaint, 

PEPYSIAN  LIBRARY,   MAGDALENE  COLLEGE  .        210 

From  a  Draioing  by  A .  Brunei  Debaines. 

TRINITY  HALL  LIBRARY 214 

From  a  Dratoing  by  H,  Toussaint. 

CARVINGS  IN  TRINITY  COLLEGE  LIBRARY    .  .        218 

From  an  Etching  by  H.  Toussaint. 

GATE  OP  VIRTUE  AT  CAIUS  COLLEGE     .  .  .       230 

From  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussaint. 

NORTH    SIDE    OP    THE    GATE    OP    HONOUR,  CAIUS 

COLLEGE 234 

From,  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussaint. 

GALLERY  IN  THE  PRESIDENT'S  LODGE  AT  QUEENS* 

COLLEGE 236 

From  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussaint. 

BRIDGE  OP  QUEENS'   COLLEGE,   LOOKING  NORTH  238 

From  a  Drawing  by  H.  Toussaint. 

THE  LODGE  OP  QUEENS'  COLLEGE  ....        240 

From  an  Etching  by  H.  Toussaint. 

CHAPEL  AND  CLOISTER  OP  EMMANUEL  COLLEGE, 

PROM  THE   GARDEN 242 

FVom  a  Drawing  by  A.  Brunei  Debaines. 

THE  SENATE   HOUSE    AND  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY       244 

From  a  Drawing  by  A.  Brunei  Debaines. 

EAST    END    OP    JESUS    COLLEGE    CHAPEL,    PROM 

THE  NEW  COURT 258 

From  a  Drawing  by  A.  E.  Pearce. 

11 


CAMBRIDGE 

AT  PAGE 

GATE  OF  ENTRANCE  TO  JESUS  COLLEGE         .  .       260 

From  a  Draioing  by  A.  E.  Pearce. 

OUTER   COURT    OP   JESUS  COLLEGE,  LOOKING    TO 

THE  SOUTH-WEST  CORNER  ....       2^ 

From,  a  Draiinng  by  A.  E.  Pearce. 

PEITHETAIROS  AND  BASILEIA 266 

From  '  The  Birds '  of  Aristophanes,  as  performed  at 
Cambridge  in  1883. 

PEITHETAIROS  AND  PROMETHEUS  ....       268 

FYom  '  The  Birds '  of  Aristophanes. 

THE  COCK 270 

From '  The  Birds '  of  Aristophanes. 

PEITHETAIROS    AND    EUELPIDES    ATTACKED    BY 

THE  BIRDS 276 

From  '  Tfie  Birds '  of  Aristophanes. 

THE  SENATE  HOUSE,  CONFERRING  DEGREES         .        300 

THE  WOODEN  SPOON 306 


12 


CAMBRIDGE 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

When  an  antiquary  examines  a  Cathedral  which 
at  first  sight  appears  to  present  uniformity  of 
design,  he  not  unfrequently  finds  that  the  choir 
is  of  one  period,  the  nave  of  another,  the  tran- 
septs of  a  third ;  all  having  been  built  long 
subsequently  to  the  foundation  of  the  primitive 
church,  whose  walls  and  piers  must  be  disin- 
terred from  underneath  the  statelier  additions 
of  more  recent  times.  Those  who  would  trace 
the  history  of  one  of  our  populous  towns  are 
obliged  to  pursue  much  the  same  process.  The 
fortifications  have  been  pulled  down  long  ago; 
half  the  churches  have  served  as  quarries  out 
of  which  the  other  half  have  been  built;  and 
though  an  old  name  of  a  street  may  here  or 
there    survive,  the    primitive    town    is  hidden 

13 


CAMBRIDGE 

away  under  the  modern  one  as  completely  as  is 
a  hermit's  cell  beneath  the  Cathedral  raised  to 
commemorate  his  saintly  life.  A  University 
town,  however,  though  it  has  outgrown  its 
ancient  limits,  and  been  modernised  in  diverse 
ways,  is  less  subject  to  change  than  almost  any 
other.  The  colleges  guard  their  territories  with 
jealous  care;  they  allow  of  no  encroachment; 
they  alienate  no  portion  of  the  sacred  soil, 
except  on  rare  occasions  to  some  other  College, 
or  to  the  University,  for  University  purposes; 
and,  moreover,  they  gradually  acquire  so  much 
property  in  the  town,  that  they  can  regulate, 
in  some  degree,  the  extent  and  direction  of 
its  development.  Thus,  though  the  colleges  of 
Cambridge  have  been  a  good  deal  altered  and 
enlarged  since  their  first  foundation,  and  even 
since  1690,  as  is  proved  by  comparing  the  exist- 
ing structures  with  David  Loggan's  engravings, 
taken  shortly  before  that  year — though  some 
have  even  been  entirely  rebuilt ;  yet  the  ancient 
landmarks  have  not  been  obliterated.  Time  has 
dealt  gently  with  them  on  the  whole;  revolu- 
tion, notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  to 
the  contrary,  has  hardly  done  them  severer 
injury  than  the  destruction  of  a  Virgin's  head 

14 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

or  the  defacement  of  a  royal  scutcheon ;  nay, 
even  in  regard  of  ordinary  accidents,  they  have 
been  singularly  fortunate.  In  the  words  of 
Fuller : 

'Whosoever  shall  consider  in  both  Universities 
the  ill  contrivance  of  many  chimnies,  hollowness  of 
hearths,  shallowness  of  tunnels,  carelessness  of  coals 
and  candles,  catchingness  of  papers,  narrowness  of 
studies,  late  reading  and  long  watching  of  scholars, 
cannot  but  conclude  that  an  especial  providence 
preserveth  those  places.  How  small  a  matter  hath 
sometimes  made  a  partition  betwixt  the  fire  and  the 
fuel  ?  Thus  an  hair's  breadth,  fixed  by  a  divine 
finger,  shall  prove  as  effectual  a  separation  from 
danger  as  a  mile's  distance.  And  although  both 
Universities  have  had  sad  accidents  in  this  kind,  yet 
neither  in  number  or  nature  (since  the  Reformation) 
so  destructive  as  in  other  places :  so  that,  blessed  be 
God,  they  have  been  rather  scare-fires  than  hurt- 
fires  unto  them.' 

If,  however,  the  town  of  Cambridge  has  been, 
on  the  whole,  but  little  altered  by  comparison 
with  other  places  that  have  increased  with  equal 
rapidity,  a  more  thorough  change  has  been 
wrought  in  the  neighbourhood  in  the  last  fifty 
years  than  in  most  other  parts  of  England  in  five 
hundred.     On  the  one  hand,  the  open  country 

15 


CAMBRIDGE 

has  been  enclosed ;  on  the  other,  the  Fen-land 
has  been  drained.  Let  us  try  to  imagine  the 
condition  of  this  latter  district  in  the  Middle 
Age,  when  Cambridge  was  a  frontier  fortress  on 
the  edge  of  the  great  wild  that  then  stretched 
away  towards  the  north-east  as  far  as  the  Wash. 
It  was  crossed  by  only  one  great  Roman  Way, 
the  Akeman  Street,  which  led  from  Cambridge 
to  Brancaster;  and  even  this  carefully  avoided 
the  low  grounds,  passing  from  island  to  island 
with  such  skill  in  engineering  that  not  more  than 
nine  miles  of  fen  had  to  be  traversed  between 
Cambridge  and  the  high  ground  of  Norfolk. 
Right  and  left  of  this  causeway  stretched  a  sea 
of  peat-moss,  all  but  impassable  except  to  those 
who  were  in  the  secret  of  its  fords  and  by-ways, 
traversed  by  sluggish  rivers,  and  dotted  here 
and  there  with  green  islands,  chief  of  which  was 
the  central  eminence  of  Ely  Isle,  the  holy  hill  of 
Etheldreda,  the  Camp  of  Refuge  to  which  the 
Saxons  fled  when  they  made  their  last  deter-, 
mined  resistance  to  the  Norman  invaders.  Not- 
withstanding all  its  drawbacks — the  agues  and 
fevers  that  racked  the  inhabitants,  the  outlaws 
who  plundered  them,  and  the  Danish  invaders 
who  could  easily  ascend  the  rivers,  and  burn  and 

16 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

murder  after  their  manner — the  Fen-land  must 
have  had  a  beauty  and  interest  of  its  own,  such 
as  is  always  to  be  found  where  Nature  is  left 
undisturbed,   and  bird,  and    beast,  and    insect 
multiply  without  the  interference  of  man.    It  is 
all  gone  now.     Two  thousand  square  miles  of 
the  finest  corn-land  in  England  have  replaced 
mere  and  reed-bed;  the  amphibious  population 
of  the  fen — '  yellow-bellies,'  as  their  neighbours 
of  tei^a  firma  contemptuously  styled    them — 
have  become   opulent  and    portly  farmers,  so 
portly  indeed  that  a  big  hole  in  a  dyke,  through 
which  the  water  was  pouring  in  a  storm,  defying 
all  efforts  to  restrain  it,  is  said  to  have  been 
effectually  stopped  by  the  simple  expedient  of 
the  farmer  sitting  down  in  it ;  and  the  soil  that 
it  was  once  thought  impossible,  if  not  impious, 
to  drain,  has  now  become    so   dry  that   in   a 
certain  hot  summer  a  few  years  ago  water  had 
to  be  pumped  into  the  Fen  instead  of  out  of  it. 
Here  and  there,  as  in  Wicken  Fen,  a  few  acres 
of  primeval  wilderness  survive  to  give  us  some 
idea  of  what  the  rest  once  was.     The  ground 
where  the  marsh-fern  still  flourishes  is  sodden 
with  black,  unwholesome  water ;  the  sedge  and 
the  reeds  are  breast-high ;  and  in  summer-time 
c  17 


CAMBRIDGE 

the  great  swallow-tailed  butterflies  float  lazily 
about  as  they  did  of  old.  However,  as  Kingsley 
said  in  his  beautiful  rhapsody  on  the  Fens : 

*We  shall  have  wheat  and  mutton  instead,  and 
no  more  typhus  and  ague ;  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 
no  more  brandy-drinking  and  opium-eating ;  and 
children  will  live  and  not  die.  For  it  was  a  hard 
place  to  live  in,  the  old  Fen,  a  place  where  one  heard 
of  "unexampled  instances  of  longevity,"  for  the 
same  reason  that  one  hears  of  them  in  savage  tribes, 
that  few  lived  to  old  age  at  all,  save  those  iron  con- 
stitutions which  nothing  could  break  down.' 

No  doubt  the  Fen  was  a  hard  taskmaster,  and 
some  of  those  who  dwelt  in  it  were  not  gentle 
either,  for  chains  and  collars  to  harness  captives, 
and  chains  wherewith  slaves  were  yoked  as  they 
worked,  have  been  found  in  it;  yet  it  had  a 
bright  side  as  well  as  a  gloomy  one,  and  parts  of 
it  were  a  very  paradise  of  fertility.  Here  is  a 
picture  of  the  Isle  of  Ely,  from  the  Liber 
EUensis,  as  it  appeared  in  the  eleventh  century. 
The  speaker  is  a  French  knight  who  has  been 
taken  prisoner  by  Hereward,  and  having  been 
hospitably  entertained  by  him,  returns  to 
William's  camp  and  describes  what  he  had 
seen : 

18 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

'In  our  Isle  men  are  not  troubling  themselves 
about  the  siege;  the  ploughman  has  not  taken  his 
hand  from  the  plough,  nor  has  the  hunter  cast  aside 
his  arrow,  nor  does  the  fowler  desist  from  beguiling 
birds.  If  you  care  to  hear  what  I  have  heard  and 
seen  with  my  own  eyes,  I  will  reveal  all  to  you.  The 
Isle  is  within  itself  plenteously  endowed ;  it  is  sup- 
plied with  various  kinds  of  herbage ;  and  in  richness 
of  soil  surpasses  the  rest  of  England.  Most  delight- 
ful for  charming  fields  and  pastures,  it  is  also  remark- 
able for  beasts  of  chase ;  and  is,  in  no  ordinary  way, 
fertile  in  flocks  and  herds.  Its  woods  and  vineyards 
are  not  worthy  of  equal  praise ;  but  it  is  begirt  by 
great  meres  and  fens  as  though  by  a  strong  wall.  In 
this  Isle  there  is  an  abundance  of  domestic  cattle, 
and  a  multitude  of  wild  animals ;  stags,  roes,  goats, 
and  hares  are  found  in  its  groves  and  by  those  fens. 
Moreover,  there  is  a  fair  sufficiency  of  otters,  weasels, 
and  polecats ;  which  in  a  hard  winter  are  caught  by 
traps,  snares,  or  by  any  other  device.  But  what  am 
I  to  say  of  the  kinds  of  fishes  and  of  fowls,  both 
those  that  fly  and  those  that  swim  ?  In  the  eddies  at 
the  sluices  of  these  meres  are  netted  innumerable  eels, 
large  water- wolves,  with  pickerels,  perches,  roaches, 
burbots,  and  lampreys,  which  we  call  water-snakes. 
It  is,  indeed,  said  by  many  that  sometimes  salmon 
are  taken  there,  together  with  the  royal  fish,  the 
sturgeon.  As  for  the  birds  that  abide  there  and 
thereabouts,  if  you  are  not  tired  of  listening  to  me, 
I  will  tell  you  about  them,  as  I  have  told  you  about 

19 


CAMBRIDGE 

the  rest.  There  are  flue  geese,  teal,  coots,  didappers, 
water-crows,  herons,  and  ducks,  more  than  man  can 
number,  especially  in  winter  or  at  moulting  time.  I 
have  seen  a  hundred  — nay,  even  three  hundred  — 
taken  at  once ;  sometimes  by  bird-lime,  sometimes  in 
nets  or  snares.' 

This  vast  prodigality  of  life  has  perished  with 
the  morasses  and  the  meres  that  sheltered  it,  and 
year  by  year,  as  drainage  become  more  extensive 
and  more  thorough,  the  Cambridge  market  is 
more  scantily  furnished  from  the  Fen.  The 
stag,  the  roe,  and  the  goat  have  been  long 
extinct,  and  their  existence  is  only  revealed  to 
us  by  the  abundance  of  their  bones  that  are 
found  in  the  all-preserving  peat.  Many  another 
animal  is  proved  by  the  same  evidence  to  have 
once  existed  in  the  Fen,  or  near  it ;  the  gigantic 
aurochs,  which,  on  the  Continent,  survived  till 
the  Lombard  invasion  of  Italy ;  the  smaller 
short-horned  ox ;  the  wild  cat,  marten,  badger, 
otter,  bear ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  beaver,  in 
sufficient  abundance  to  show  that  there  must 
have  been  numerous  colonies  of  them  there. 
The  drainage  of  Whittlesea  Mere,  completed  in 
1850,  destroyed  the  last  home  of  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  of  British  insects,  the  great  copper 

20 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

butterfly  ;  and  of  many  birds  also.  Snipe  are 
said  to  breed  no  longer  in  the  Fen ;  while  ruffs 
and  reeves,  godwits,  spoonbills,  bitterns,  and 
herons,  are  almost  as  much  creatures  of  the 
past  as  the  pelican,  whose  former  existence  is 
proved  by  a  couple  of  his  wingbones  preserved 
in  the  Cambridge  University  Museum. 

On  the  western  edge  of  the  Fen-land,  where 
the  higher  ground  terminates  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Cam  in  an  eminence  of  considerable 
height,  stood  the  Roman  station  of  Camboritum. 
This  commanding  position  had  already  been 
taken  possession  of  by  an  earlier  race,  as  is 
shown  by  the  lofty  mound  called  Castle  Hill, 
probably  a  British  earth-work.  This  was  in- 
cluded within  the  precincts  of  the  Roman 
fortifications,  traces  of  which  can  still  be  re- 
cognised. They  measured  about  1650  feet  from 
north  to  south,  by  1600  feet  from  east  to  west. 
At  this  point  the  Akeman  Street  left  the  Fen, 
and  was  crossed,  at  almost  right  angles,  by  a 
second  Roman  Way,  the  Via  Devana,  which  ran 
from  Colchester  to  Chester.  The  situation  of 
Camboritum,  at  the  junction  of  two  such  im- 
portant roads,  probably  saved  it  from  the  de- 
struction which  overtook  so  many  Roman  towns 

21 


CAMBRIDGE 

in  the  havoc  of  the  English  conquest,  and  caused 
it  to  be  at  once  occupied  by  the  conqueror.  It 
is  not  to  Cambridge,  therefore,  but  to  some  other 
Roman  station  that  Bede  refers,  when  he  relates 
how  Sexburga,  sister  of  Etheldreda,  foundress 
of  Ely,  sent  to  seek  a  marble  sarcophagus  fit  to 
contain  the  saint's  remains.  '  The  brethren 
whom  she  sent,'  says  the  historian,  '  took  ship 
and  came  to  a  certain  ruined  town  at  no  great 
distance,  which  in  the  English  tongue  is  called 
GrantacsBstir ;  there  presently  they  found,  hard 
by  the  walls,  a  white  marble  coffin,  exquisitely 
wrought,  with  a  lid  of  the  same  material.' 
This  description  does  not  suit  Cambridge,  where 
few  Roman  remains  have  been  discovered  ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  suits  Grantchester  exceed- 
ingly well,  a  village  about  three  miles  higher  up 
the  stream,  where  there  is  a  well-marked  Roman 
encampment,  and  where  there  was  evidently  an 
extensive  cemetery,  for  many  ancient  coffins 
may  still  be  seen,  built  into  the  walls  of  the 
church  and  churchyard.  This  town  was  appar- 
ently early  deserted  in  favour  of  Camboritum, 
which,  for  the  reasons  mentioned  above,  was 
the  more  convenient  and  important  station. 
Camboritum  stood  nearly  opposite  to  the 
22 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

northernmost  limit  of  a  considerable  bend  of  the 
river,  which  is  crossed  by  a  bridge  at  the  bottom 
of  the  hill  commanded  by  the  camp  or  castle. 
As  there  is  evidence  that  the  road  which  passes 
over  this  bridge  is  the  southward  extension  of 
the  Via  Devana,  it  is  almost  certain  that  the 
river  has  always  been  crossed  at  the  same  place. 
In  ancient  times  fords  were  used  instead  of 
bridges,  and,  in  fact,  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  when  the  bridge  was  being  repaired, 
traces  of  a  ford  were  found  in  this  place.  It 
may  therefore  be  suggested  that  Camboritum 
signifies  '  the  ford  (ritum)  at  the  bend,'  a  name 
derived  from  the  position  of  the  high  ground, 
which  effectually  commanded  the  passage  of  the 
river. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  name  Camboritum 
seems  to  have  been  either  unknown  or  forgotten ; 
Grantebrigge  or  Cantebrigge  is  the  only  name  in 
use,  while  the  river,  if  a  name  more  distinct  than 
•  the  running  water '  is  used  for  it,  is  called  le  Ee, 
or  le  Rhee,  a  name  which  is  still  applied  to  the 
upper  part  of  its  course.  The  name  Granta 
reappears  on  Saxton's  map  of  Cambridgeshire 
(1576) ;  and  in  Spenser's  Faery  Queene  (1590), 
under  the  form  Guant : 

23 


CAMBRIDGE 

'  Next  these  the  plenteous  Ouse  came  far  from  land, 
By  many  a  city  and  by  many  a  towne, 
And  many  rivers  taking  under-hand ' 
Into  his  waters,  as  he  passeth  downe, 
(The  Cle,  the  Were,  the  Guant,  the  Sture,  the  Rowne), 
Thence  doth  by  Huntingdon  and  Cambridge  flit ; 
My  mother,  Cambridge,  whom,  as  with  a  crowne, 
He  doth  adorne,  and  is  adorn'd  of  it 
With  many  a  gentle  muse  and  many  a  learned  wit.' 

Camden,  writing  in  1586,  recognises  the  Cam 
as  well  as  the  Granta :  *  By  what  name  writers 
termed  this  River,  it  is  a  question :  some  call  it 
Ch^anta,  others  Camus'  On  Speed's  map  of 
Cambridgeshire  (1610)  the  name  Cam  occurs 
alone,  written  twice,  once  above,  and  once  below, 
Cambridge ;  Milton  personifies  it  as  a  river-god 
in  Lycidas  (1638) : 

'  Next  Camus,  reverend  sire,  went  footing  slow, 
His  mantle  hairy  and  his  bonnet  sedge, 
Inwrought  with  figures  dim,  and  on  the  edge 
*     Like  to  that  sanguine  flower  inscribed  with  woe ' ; 

and  on  Loggan's  map  of  Cambridge  (1688)  the 
words  The  River  Cam,  are  written  out  in  full, 
without  any  other  designation.  On  the  other 
hand,  so  late  as  1702,  an  Act  of  Parliament  for 
improving  the  navigation  speaks  of  the  River 
Cham,  alias  the  Grant. 
The  usefulness  of  this  stream  to  the  inhabitants 
24 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

of  Cambridge — whatever  name  they  gave  to  it — 
was  very  great.  Until  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century  it  supplied  them,  to  a  great 
extent,  with  water  for  household  use ;  and  until 
the  construction  of  railways  it  was  the  principal 
highway  along  which  provender  of  all  sorts,  fuel, 
and  heavy  goods,  were  brought  to  the  town. 
This  explains  the  ill-feeling  excited  at  different 
times  as  the  colleges  gradually  acquired  and 
closed  up  the  lanes  leading  to  it.  We  quote  a 
graphic  description  of  the  advantages  derived 
from  the  river  which  appears  in  a  work  called 
Cantabrigia  Depicta,  published  in  1763.  The 
name,  it  will  be  observed,  is  still  The  Grant. 

'  The  Air  of  Cambridge  is  very  healthful,  and  the 
Town  plentifully  supplied  with  excellent  Water,  not 
only  from  the  River  and  Aqueduct  already  men- 
tioned, but  from  the  numerous  Springs  on  every 
Side  of  it ;  some  of  them  medicinal.  Nor  is  it  better 
supplied  with  Water,  than  it  is  with  other  neces- 
saries of  Life.  The  purest  Wine  they  receive  by 
the  Way  of  Lynn  :  Flesh,  Fish,  Wild-fowl,  Poultry, 
Butter,  Cheese,  and  all  Manner  of  Provisions,  from 
the  adjacent  country :  Firing  is  cheap ;  Coals  from 
Seven-pence  to  Nine-pence  a  Bushel ;  Turf,  or  rather 
Peat,  four  Shillings  a  Thousand  ;  Sedge,  with  which 
the  Bakers  heat  their  Ovens,  four  Shillings  per 
D  25 


CAMBRIDGE 

hundred  Sheaves:  These,  together  with  Osiers, 
Reeds  and  Rushes  used  in  several  Trades,  are  daily 
imported  by  the  River  Grant.  Great  Quantities  of 
Oil,  made  of  Flax-Seed,  Cole-Seed,  Hemp  and  other 
Seeds,  ground  or  pressed  by  the  numerous  Mills  in 
the  Isle  of  Ely,  are  brought  up  this  River  also ;  and 
the  Cakes,  after  the  Oil  is  pressed  out,  afford  the 
Farmer  an  excellent  Manure  to  improve  his  Grounds. 
By  the  River  also  they  receive  1500  or  2000  Firkins  of 
Butter  every  Week,  from  Norfolk  and  the  Isle  of 
Ely,  which  is  sent  by  Waggons  to  London :  Besides 
which,  great  quantities  are  made  in  the  neighbour- 
ing Villages,  for  the  Use  of  the  University  and 
Town,  and  brought  fresh  to  Market  every  Day, 
except  Monday.  Every  Pound  of  this  Butter  is 
rolled,  and  drawn  out  to  a  Yard  in  Length,  about 
the  Bigness  of  a  Walking-Cane  ;  which  is  mentioned 
as  peculiar  to  this  Place.  The  Fields  near  Cambridge 
furnish  the  Town  with  the  best  Saffron  in  Europe, 
which  sells  usually  from  24  to  30  Shillings  a  Pound.' 

On  the  site  of  Roman  Camboritum  William 
the  Conqueror  founded  Cambridge  Castle  in 
1068,  on  his  return  from  the  conquest  of  York ; 
and  in  the  following  year  he  took  up  his  abode 
there  while  conducting  the  operations  against 
Ely,  where  Hereward  was  commanding  in  person. 
At  this  time  the  town  of  Cambridge  must  have 
been  almost    entirely  confined    to  the  district 

26 


o    z 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

round  the  Castle,  still  popularly  called  the 
Burgh  or  Borough ;  and  before  William  came, 
it  evidently  occupied  the  site  of  the  Roman 
station,  for  twenty-seven  houses  are  said  to 
have  been  destroyed  by  him  to  make  w^ay  for 
the  Castle.  The  fortifications  were  confined  to 
the  high  ground,  for  it  was  clearly  needless 
to  guard  even  the  passage  of  the  river  below. 
Danger  was  to  be  expected  from  the  fen  in 
front,  not  from  the  arable  land  behind,  or  from 
the  open  grass-covered  Gogmagog  Hills  to  the 
south-east,  whence  the  great  dyke,  called  *  Devil's 
Dyke,'  stretched  down  to  the  river  by  Reche, 
at  the  entrance  to  Burwell  Fen,  a  sure  defence 
from  assailants  in  that  direction.  The  further 
history  of  the  Castle  is  singularly  uneventful. 
No  deeds  of  arms  are  recorded  in  connection 
with  it;  it  was  never  taken,  nor,  so  far  as  we 
know,  ever  defended.  In  the  first  quarter  of 
the  fourteenth  century  part  of  it  became  a  prison, 
and  the  rest  was  gradually  pulled  down.  Edward 
the  Third  built  his  college  of  King's  Hall  with 
some  of  the  materials ;  Henry  the  Fifth  granted 
stone  and  timbers  out  of  it  for  the  erection  of 
the  chapel  of  the  same ;  and  in  1441  Henry  the 
Sixth    allowed    the    provost    and    scholars    of 

27 


CAMBRIDGE 

King's  College  to  make  similar  use  of  the  hall 
and  a  chamber  adjoining,  then  unroofed  and 
ruinous.  Notwithstanding  these  grants,  the 
Keep  is  alluded  to  as  still  standing  in  1553; 
and  in  1642,  when  the  Earl  of  Manchester  held 
Cambridge  for  the  Parliament,  it  appears  to 
have  been  easily  put  into  an  efficient  state  of 
defence,  with  the  help  of  materials  seized  from 
Clare  Hall,  the  rebuilding  of  which  had  been 
begun  shortly  before.  We  read  of  breastworks, 
and  bulwarks,  and  strong  fortifications.  These 
were  again  demolished  at  the  restoration  of 
peace;  but  the  Gate-house  remained  until  1842, 
but  little  altered  from  the  appearance  it  presents 
in  our  woodcut,  Which  is  copied  from  a  view 
taken  in  1773.  The  County  Courts  and  the  Gaol 
now  occupy  the  site.  The  Castle  Hill,  unoccupied 
by  buildings,  is  the  occasional  resort  of  sight- 
seers, for  the  sake  of  the  fine  view  to  be  obtained 
from  it.  It  used  to  be  a  favourite  joke  to  per- 
suade 'freshmen'  to  mount  it,  in  the  hope  of 
'  seeing  the  term  divide,'  an  operation  which 
they  were  led  to  believe  was  attended  by 
certain  solemn  portents  when  the  Cambridge 
Calendar  announced  that  'the  term  divides  at 
midnight.' 

28 


THE  MEDIEV^AL  TOWN 

At  its  first  origin,  then,  the  town  of  Cambridge 
was  limited  to  a  few  houses  round  the  Castle, 
and  along  the  street  leading  to  and  from  the 
ford  at  the  foot  of  the  Castle  Hill.  The  ford,  it 
must  be  remembered,  must  always  have  been  of 
great  importance,  for  it  was  the  only  point  at 
which  merchandise  and  cattle  could  pass  the 
river  on  their  way  from  the  Eastern  Counties  to 
the  Midlands.  It  is  conceivable,  therefore,  that 
even  without  the  Norman  stronghold,  and  with- 
out the  University,  a  town  might  have  grown 
up  at  this  spot. 

The  origin  of  the  University  cannot  be  defined. 
It  did  not  spring  into  being  in  any  particular 
year,  or  at  the  bidding  of  any  particular  founder ; 
it  grew  up  gradually,  as  a  voluntary  association 
of  teachers  and  taught,  governed  by  enactments 
framed  by  the  body  itself,  and  sanctioned  or 
repealed  from  time  to  time.  It  used  to  be 
asserted  that  it  owed  its  origin  to  the  two  great 
Benedictine  monasteries  of  the  Fen-land,  Croy- 
land  and  Ely ;  and  we  know  that  monks  from 
the  latter  house  did  resort  to  Cambridge  for 
study  at  a  very  early  date.  But  they  would 
hardly  have  gone  out  into  the  wilderness  to 
found  an  institution  for  which  Croyland  or  Ely 

29 


CAMBRIDGE 

would  have  afforded  an  equally  suitable  site; 
the  fact  that  they  came  proves  that  schools  must 
have  been  already  in  existence.  More  extended 
research  in  monastic  archives  may  elicit  further 
facts  respecting  the  early  connection  of  the 
great  religious  Orders  with  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge ;  for  the  present  we  will  be  content  with 
the  fact  that  we  owe  to  the  convent  of  Ely  the 
establishment  of  the  collegiate  system  at  Cam- 
bridge. Bishop  Hugh  de  Balsham,  who  before 
his  promotion  had  been  sub-prior  of  the  convent, 
and  may  have  been  a  student  in  the  schools  of 
Cambridge,  unquestionably  founded  Peterhouse 
in  1284. 

By  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  town 
of  Cambridge  had  outgrown  the  narrow  limits 
that  were  sufficient  for  it  when  the  Castle  was 
built,  and  had  extended  itself  over  the  level 
ground  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  to  the 
right  and  left  of  the  Roman  road,  the  course  of 
which  is  marked  by  the  long  straight  street  that 
runs  through  Cambridge  from  north  to  south, 
and  is  called  Bridge  Street,  Sidney  Street,  and 
St.  Andrew's  Street,  in  different  parts  of  its 
course.  Nearest  to  the  Castle,  on  the  right  of  the 
street,  stood  the  Hospital  of  St.  John,  founded, 

80 


iM 


r!  H  > 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

in  all  probability,  by  John   Frost,  a   burgher 
of  Cambridge, — though  subsequently  the  Bishops 
of  Ely,  as  Baker,  the   historian  of  St.  John's, 
says,  *set  up  for  founders  and  patrons'  of  it. 
Into  this  corporation  of  regular  canons  Hugh  de 
Balsham   introduced    certain    secular    scholars, 
under  the  idea  that  they  would  become  'one 
body  and  one  college '  {unum  corpus  et  unum 
collegium),  and   miade  due   provision  for  their 
maintenance    independently    of    the    brethren. 
The  intention  was  excellent,  the  result  a  failure. 
The  two  sets  of  occupants  of  the  house  quar- 
relled bitterly  from  the  first,  *  the  scholars  being 
perhaps    too  wise,  and    the    brethren  possibly 
over-good,'  so  that  they  had  to  be  separated. 
The  scholars  were  removed  to  the  very  opposite 
end  of  Cambridge,  where  lodging  was  found  for 
them  outside  the  town,  in  two  hostels  hard  by  a 
church  then  called  St.  Peter's,  which  they  were 
permitted  to  use  as  their   chapel.     In  order  to 
give  an  idea  of  what   Cambridge   was  at  this 
time,  let  us  imagine  one  of  these  scholars,  on  his 
way  from  Ely  to  Cambridge,  to  ascend  the  Castle 
Hill,  and  let  us  try  to  realise  the  view  spread 
out  before  him. 
The  town  was  at  that  time  rather  like  a  pear 
31 


CAMBRIDGE 

in  shape,  of  which  the  stalk  would  be  repre- 
sented by  the  Bridge,  a  wooden  structure  of 
many  arches.  The  west  side  was  bounded  by 
the  river ;  the  east  and  south  by  the  King's 
Ditch,  constructed  by  Henry  the  Third  for 
the  defence  of  the  town.  It  left  the  river 
just  above  Queens'  College,  and  returned  to 
it  below  the  Great  Bridge.  The  Roman  Way 
ran  close  to  the  eastern  limit  of  the  town, 
at  no  great  distance  from  the  Ditch.  About 
two  hundred  yards  from  the  Bridge  a  second 
street  branched  off  to  the  right,  dividing  the 
town  into  nearly  equal  divisions.  This,  the 
present  Trumpington  Street,  was  then  called 
High  Street,  or  High  Ward.  At  the  point  where 
it  branched  off,  on  the  left  of  Bridge  Street, 
stood  one  of  the  four  circular  churches  in 
England,  probably  even  then  of  considerable 
antiquity,  called  St.  Sepulchre's.  Round  it  clus- 
tered the  Jewry,  a  quarter  of  considerable  extent, 
for  it  stretched  along  the  eastern  side  of  High 
Street  far  enough  to  include  All  Saints'  Church. 
Opposite  to  this  church  stood  the  Hospital  of 
St.  John,  with  extensive  gardens  and  fish-ponds 
behind  it.  Beyond  the  Hospital,  to  the  south, 
there  was  a   dense  network  of    narrow  lanes, 

82 


INTERIOR    OK 
THE   CHURCH    OK 
THE    HOLY    SEI'CLCHRE. 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

with  here  and  there  a  garden,  or  a  vineyard,  or  a 
wharf  along  the  river  bank,  separating  the  com- 
pact masses  of  dwelling-houses  which  extended 
as  far  as  the  Carmelite  Friary  at  the  south- 
west angle  of  the  town.  Close  to  this  the  High 
Street  crossed  the  King's  Ditch  by  a  bridge,  to 
the  north  of  which  was  Trumpington  Gate,  per- 
haps a  fortified  structure,  as  the  other  gates  of 
the  town  may  also  have  been.  Outside  this 
gate,  at  the  commencement  of  a  straggling 
suburb,  stood  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  in  the 
midst  of  an  extensive  graveyard.  Beyond  it 
was  the  House  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Penance, 
or  Penitence,  of  Jesus  Christ,  otherwise  called 
'  Friars  of  the  Sack ' ;  opposite  to  which,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  street,  was  that  of  the  White 
Canons  of  Sempringham.  Had  the  eyes  of  our 
imaginary  spectator  followed  the  line  of  the 
boundary  ditch,  which  must  have  been  well 
marked  by  the  broad  band  of  unoccupied  ground 
— a  sort  of  boulevard — that  extended  along  it, 
he  would  have  seen  the  then  newly-built  House 
of  the  Augustinian  Friars,  with  the  extensive 
garden  ground  behind  it,  which  became  the 
Botanic  Garden  in  the  last  century.  Further  to 
the  east  again,  on  the  left  of  the  Roman  Way 
E  83 


CAMBRIDGE 

was  the  House  of  Dominicans,  or  Black  Friars, 
after  whom  that  portion  of  the  street  was  after- 
wards called  'Preachers'  Street.'    At  that  time 
the  House  was  probably  unfinished,  but  in  later 
days  it  became  an  extensive  pile  of  buildings, 
with  a  lofty  church.    The  outline  of  the  nave 
may  still  be  traced  within  Emmanuel  College, 
whose   founder,   Sir   Walter   Mildmay,   in  con- 
tempt of  the  old  religion,  boasted  that  he  had 
turned  the  Friars'  church  into  a  dining-hall,  and 
their  refectory  into  a  chapel.    Between  this  and 
the  Round  Church  was  the  Franciscan  House, 
which  even  then  was  probably  extensive,  but 
which  afterwards  possessed  a  spacious  church, 
which  Ascham  described  as  an  ornament  to  the 
University,  and  of   which   the  foundations    in 
Fuller's  time  could   still  be  traced   within  the 
precincts   of   Sidney  Sussex    College.      At    the 
Reformation  the  University  tried  to  obtain  a 
grant  of  it,  but  without  success.    The  solid  walls 
were  gradually  destroyed  to  build  other  struc- 
tures, as  the  items, '  stone  from  the  Grey  Friars,' 
in  the  accounts  of  more  than  one  college,  con- 
clusively show.     These  monastic  buildings,  ex- 
cept the  Dominican  Friary,  stood  close  to  the 
outskirts  of  the  little  town,  but  still  within  the 

34 


-      r-      Z 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

preciucts.  Beyond  them  were  spacious  com- 
mons, Cow  Fen  or  Coe  Fen,  on  the  west;  then 
Saint  Thomas'  Leas  ;  and  lastly,  the  Green-croft, 
which  extended  almost  from  the  Great  Bridge 
to  the  neighbouring  village  of  Barnwell.  In  the 
midst  of  it,  walled  about,  and  overshadowed 
by  trees,  stood  the  Benedictine  nunnery  of  St. 
Rhadegund,  afterwards  Jesus  College;  while 
Barnwell  would  be  rendered  conspicuous  by  the 
great  Priory  Church  of  St.  Giles. 

Let  us  return  for  a  moment  to  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  of  which  we  illustrate  the 
exterior  and  the  interior.  It  is  reputed  to  be 
the  oldest  of  the  English  round  churches,  and  to 
have  been  consecrated  in  1101,  though  its  origin 
and  history  are  alike  unknown.  It  consists  of 
two  distinct  portions ;  the  ancient  round  church, 
and  the  modern  chancel  and  aisles.  This  latter 
portion  was  built  in  1844,  when  the  church — then 
in  a  dilapidated  and  almost  ruinous  condition — 
was  saved  from  destruction  by  the  ill-fated 
Cambridge  Camden  Society.  The  late  Decorated 
style  was  selected  by  the  architect,  Mr.  Salvin, 
because  there  appeared  to  be  evidence  that  the 
building  which  it  replaced  had  been  originally 
constructed  during  that  period.     It  once  con- 

85 


CAMBRIDGE 

tained  the  famous  stone  altar,  to  eject  which 
a  decree  of  the  Court  of  Arches  was  found 
necessary.  The  details  of  that  bitter  contro- 
versy which,  for  the  time,  divided  the  University 
into  two  hostile  camps,  are  not  worth  reviving. 
The  Society  became  the  object  of  virulent,  and 
most  unjust,  attacks,  and  after  the  secession  of 
the  Bishops  and  most  of  the  principal  University 
dignitaries,  headed  by  the  Chancellor,  it  was 
removed  to  London,  where  it  flourished  for  many 
years  under  a  new  name. 

The  round  portion,  which,  with  the  addition 
of,  perhaps,  a  small  apsidal  chancel,  was  the 
entire  original  structure,  is  forty-one  feet  in 
diameter.  It  is  composed  of  a  central  area, 
nineteen  feet  in  diameter,  surrounded  by  an 
aisle,  to  which  access  is  obtained  through  eight 
massive  round  arches,  resting  on  cylindrical 
piers.  These  support  a  clerestory,  forming  a 
low  round  tower,  to  which  an  upper  storey  was 
added  in  the  fifteenth  century  to  be  used  as  a 
belfry.  The  weight  of  this  addition  nearly 
ruined  the  older  work  beneath  it,  which  was 
further  damaged  and  disfigured  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  gallery,  and  the  liberal  use  of 
whitewash,    while    the  floor   beneath    was   ob- 

36 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

structed  by  numerous  pews  of  various  shapes 
and  sizes.  The  original  round-headed  windows 
had,  with  one  exception,  been  replaced  by  Per- 
pendicular insertions,  and  the  picturesque  porch 
was  concealed  beneath  a  tasteless  penthouse  of 
wood.  These  inappropriate  additions  were  re- 
moved in  the  course  of  the  restoration,  the 
ancient  walls  were  strengthened  by  a  bed  of 
concrete  inserted  beneath  them,  and  the  tower 
secured  by  iron  bands.  The  round-headed  win- 
dows were  restored  after  the  pattern  of  the  one 
remaining,  and  the  tower  surmounted  by  an 
appropriate  conical  cap  covered  with  grey  North- 
amptonshire slates.  The  interior  was  cleared  of 
the  vulgar  and  unsuitable  fittings,  and  properly 
repaired.  It  remains  as  a  vestibule  to  the 
modern  chancel,  being  from  its  shape  unsuitable 
for  the  reception  of  seats. 

In  our  imaginary  survey  of  Cambridge,  another 
ancient  building,  probably  the  oldest  in  the 
town,  has  been  omitted,  the  Church  of  St. 
Benedict.  It  stood  a  little  to  the  west  of  the 
House  of  the  Augustinian  Friars;  and  the 
archaic  style  of  its  architecture  suggests  that 
it  was  once  the  church  of  an  independent  village, 
which  was  standing  on  the  low  ground  before 

37 


CAMBRIDGE 

the  erection  of  the  Norman  stronghold  on  the 
hill  beyond  the  river.  Modern  restoration  has 
left  hardly  a  fragment  of  this  early  church  ex- 
cept the  square  west  tower,  of  which  the  upper 
stage  is  shown  in  our  woodcut.  This  remark- 
able monument  has  been  described  with  much 
minuteness  by  the  Rev.  D.  J.  Stewart,  from 
whom  the  following  passage  is  borrowed  : 

*  The  walls  are  about  three  feet  thick,  constructed 
throughout  of  rough  stone-work,  and  strengthened 
at  the  quoins  externally  by  thin  blocks  of  hewn 
stone  laid  flat  and  set  up  on  their  ends  in  regular 
alternate  courses — an  arrangement  to  which  the 
name  of  *'  long-and-short  work"  has  been  given.  It 
consists  of  three  storeys,  the  lowest  of  which  takes 
up  about  one-half  of  the  whole  building,  and  is 
finished  by  a  plain  projecting  string-course.  Tlie 
second  storey  is  somewhat  smaller  than  the  lower 
one  on  which  it  stands,  and  is  separated  from  the 
third  by  another  rude  string-course.  This  latter 
storey  has  not  been  much  meddled  with.  In  the 
middle  of  each  of  the  four  sides  there  is  a  window, 
divided  by  a  central  baluster  ornamented  with  a 
band  of  rudely  carved  rings,  standing  in  the  middle 
of  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  and  supporting  a  large 
stone,  or  flat  abcicus,  which  extends  completely 
through  the  wall,  and  from  which  spring  two  semi- 
circular window-heads  cut  out  of  a  single  stone.    On 

38 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWN 

each  side  of  this  central  window  there  is  a  small  one 
of  the  plainest  kind,  with  a  semicircular  head, 
wrought  out  of  a  single  stone.  These  small  windoAvs 
do  not  range  with  the  middle  one ;  their  sills  do  not 
come  down  to  the  string-course ;  their  heads  are 
higher,  and  above  each,  with  a  single  exception, 
there  is  a  small  block  of  stone,  whose  length  is 
about  twice  its  width,  pierced  through  with  a  round 
hole.' 

The  tower  is  connected  with  the  body  of  the 
church  by  a  round-headed  arch,  plain  and  mas- 
sive, with  capitals  adorned  with  rudely-carved 
representations  of  animals,  characteristic  of 
early  work.  Of  the  church  that  once  existed 
coeval  with  the  tower  only  a  few  fragments 
remain,  built  here  and  there  into  more  modern 
walls.  The  present  nave  is  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  the  chancel,  of  which  the  east  end 
is  shown  in  our  etching,  was  built  in  1872.  The 
building,  of  nearly  equal  height,  abutting  against 
the  south  side  of  the  chancel,  contained  origi- 
nally an  upper  and  lower  chapel,  for  the  use  of 
the  students  of  Corpus  Christi  College.  The 
former  was  used  as  a  lecture-room  as  well  as  a 
chapel,  a  custom  almost  universal  in  colleges 
until  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In 
the  north  wall  there  was  a  window  looking  into 

39 


^ 


CAMBRIDGE 


the  parish  chancel.  This  building  is  connected 
with  the  college  by  a  picturesque  gallery,  beneath 
which  is  a  four-centred  archway.  This  was  the 
original  churchway  for  the  parishioners,  who 
entered  the  nave  of  their  church  through  a 
porch,  now  destroyed,  at  the  west  end  of  the 
south  aisle.  The  chapel  and  gallery  were  erected 
by  Dr.  Cosyn,  Master  of  Corpus  Christi  College, 
between  1487  and  1515. 


40 


m 


II 

THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE  :    THE  MARKET  HILL 

A  STRANGER  who  walks  through  the  college 
quadrangles  is  apt  to  think  that  the  arrange- 
ment of  their  buildings  was  adopted  deliberately 
upon  a  plan  decided  upon  at  the  foundation. 
This  very  natural  opinion  is  not,  however,  the 
true  one.  The  college  system  started  from  small 
and  obscure  beginnings.  It  was  impossible  to 
foresee  the  extent  to  which  it  would  be  subse- 
quently developed,  and  in  consequence  the  first 
buildings  were  extremely  simple,  and  destitute 
of  some  of  those  distinctive  features  (as  the 
entrance  gate-way  and  the  chapel)  which  are 
now  the  first  to  command  attention  and  admira- 
tion. 

The    earliest    students   who    resorted   to   the 
University    lodged    where    they    could    in    the 
houses  of  the  townspeople ;  whence,  as  Dr.  Caius 
F  41 


CAMBRIDGE 

tells  us,  serious  disagreement  arose;  for  the 
former  desired  to  hire  lodgings  at  a  fair  price, 
the  latter  to  let  them  at  an  exorbitant  one.  To 
remedy  this,  hostels  were  established,  managed 
by  a  Principal  appointed  by  the  University, 
where  food  and  lodging  were  provided  at  an 
equitable  rate.  Caius,  writing  in  1573,  records 
the  names  of  some  twenty  of  these,  which  had 
been  in  existence  within  his  own  recollection 
(and  he  was  then,  he  says,  sixty-three  years  old), 
but  at  that  date  they  had  all  come  to  an  end. 
After  the  college  system  had  been  accepted  they 
became  unnecessary.  Some  few  survived  for  a 
while,  attached  to  special  colleges  as  a  source 
of  revenue,  as  St.  Austin's  to  King's,  and  St. 
Bernard's  to  Corpus  Christi.  Gradually,  how- 
ever, the  ground  they  occupied  was  required 
for  collegiate  extension,  and  the  hostel  was 
either  pulled  down  or  converted  into  chambers. 

The  principal  distinction  between  these  tem- 
porary residences  and  the  colleges  that  suc- 
ceeded them  is,  that  the  latter  were  in  all  cases 
governed  by  a  body  of  statutes  imposed  by  the 
founder,  who  further  offered  inducements  to 
students  to  resort  to  his  college  by  holding  out 
the  prospect  of  Scholarships  and  Fellowships ; 

42 


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&. 

H 

r-^ 

THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE 

in  other  words,  of  being  educated  free  of  cost 
while  an  undergraduate,  and  of  obtaining  after- 
wards a  provision  for  a  life  of  study.  Besides 
these,  there  were  the  poor  scholars  (pauperes 
scolares),  now  called  'sizars,'  who  were  lodged 
as  well  as  educated  free  of  charge,  and  further 
allowed  to  make  money  by  doing  menial  work. 
For  instance,  when  building  operations  are  going 
on,  we  constantly  find  reference  to  their  employ- 
ment at  daily  wages.  This  system  (which  has 
been  beneficial  in  its  effect  down  to  our  own 
time,  for  many  of  our  most  distinguished 
scholars  entered  the  University  as  sizars)  was 
part  of  the  deliberate  purpose  that  animated 
the  design  of  Walter  de  Merton,  who  may  be 
called  the  founder  of  the  whole  collegiate  sys- 
tem. He  sought  to  attract  the  most  capable 
men  of  all  classes,  and  so  to  raise  up  secular 
schools  which  should  check  the  influence  of  the 
monasteries,  and  through  them  of  the  Pope. 
Merton's  code,  which  was  followed  at  Peter- 
house  and  elsewhere,  and  that  subsequently 
drawn  up  by  William  of  Wykeham  for  New 
College  at  Oxford  in  1400,  well  repay  attentive 
study.  In  a  series  of  pictures  of  Cambridge, 
however,  we  purpose  to  select  those  points  of 

43 


CAMBRIDGE 

collegiate  history  that  illustrate  the  buildings 
and  the  social  life,  rather  than  the  education, 
which  has  of  late  been  exhaustively  treated  of 
by  others.  Let  us,  therefore,  return  to  the 
establishment  of  Peterhouse.  Our  illustration 
shows  the  south  side  next  the  Fellows'  garden, 
with  the  Hall,  and  the  turret-staircase  that 
originally  led  to  the  Master's  chamber.  The 
story  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  buildings 
of  this  college,  which  we  select  as  a  type  of 
collegiate  development,  affords  an  instructive 
picture  of  the  trials  and  difficulties  that  had  to 
be  surmounted  before  the  colleges  reached  their 
present  completeness ;  a  development  which  no 
founder,  no  matter  how  wise  and  far-seeing, 
could  ever  have  foreseen : 

'  And  yet  he  dream'd  not :  we^  who  every  hour 
Build  grain  by  grain  the  mass  of  human  power, 
Must  bow  before  our  Master,  who  but  stood 
And  nursed  the  juices  working  in  the  bud. 
And  might  not  tend  the  flowering  ;  who  but  fed 
The  stream  of  science  at  the  fountain-head. 
Now  spreads  the  flower,  now  roars  the  stream,  and  we 
See  but  his  hope  become  reality.' 

When  Bishop  Hugh  de  Balsham  established 
his  scholars  in  1284,  he  obtained  leave  for  them 
to  use  the  neighbouring  parish  church  of  St. 

44 


THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE 

Peter  for  their  devotions.  This  was  a  usual 
arrangement  with  the  first  colleges.  Thus, 
Michael  House,  the  second  in  order  of  founda- 
tion, used  St.  Michael's  Church ;  Clare  Hall  and 
Trinity  Hall,  St.  John  Baptist's ;  Gonville  Hall 
(in  its  original  position),  St.  Botolph's;  King's 
Hall,  Great  St.  Mary's,  or,  as  it  was  then  called, 
St.  Mary's  -  by  -  the  -  Market.  Pembroke  Hall, 
founded  in  1347,  is  the  first  college  that  had  a 
chapel  of  its  own  within  the  precincts  from  the 
beginning. 

The  Bishop  died  within  two  years  after  the 
foundation  of  Peterhouse.  On  his  death-bed  he 
bequeathed  to  his  scholars  300  marks.  With 
this  sum  they  acquired  a  considerable  area  to 
the  west  and  south  of  the  original  hostels,  and 
built  a  handsome  hall  {aulam  ferpulcrmn),  which 
is,  substantially,  the  building  still  in  use.  The 
erection  of  this  edifice  exhausted  their  funds, 
and  for  more  than  a  century  they  were  unable 
to  extend  their  buildings.  Then  they  addressed 
themselves  to  John  de  Fordham,  Bishop  of  Ely, 
with  a  humble  petition,  praying  that  the  Rectory 
of  Hinton,  near  Cambridge,  might  be  appro- 
priated to  them ;  '  For,'  said  they,  *  the  revenue 
of  our  house  is  so  small  that  it  barely  sufficeth 

45 


CAMBRIDGE 

in  these  days  for  the  support  of  a  Master  and 
fourteen  scholars,  according  to  the  ordinances 
of  your  predecessors;  nor  are  our  buildings 
finished,  or  properly  furnished  with  the  neces- 
sary offices.'  The  Bishop  presently  put  them 
in  possession  of  the  church.  The  result  of  this 
increase  of  fortune  soon  became  apparent.  In 
1424  we  find  extensive  building-works  in  pro- 
gress, which  may  be  referred  to  the  range  of 
chambers  forming  the  north  side  of  the  court; 
and  in  1431  a  contract  for  a  library  is  drawn 
up  with  a  mason  named  John  Wassyngle  of 
Hinton.  The  extent  of  this  room,  which  occu- 
pied nearly  the  whole  western  side  of  the  court, 
can  still  be  traced  beneath  the  Italian  front 
imposed  upon  the  ancient  walls  in  the  last  cen- 
tury ;  and  the  spiral  stone  staircase  by  which  it 
was  approached,  to  construct  which  a  workman 
named  Reginald  Ely  was  specially  engaged,  still 
gives  access  to  the  rooms  into  which  it  has  since 
been  divided.  Having  provided  for  their  books, 
the  scholars  turned  their  attention  to  their  own 
bodily  wants,  and  in  1450  constructed  a  new 
kitchen,  which  still  exists,  in  the  south-west 
corner  of  the  court,  between  the  hall  and  the 
library.    Lastly,  the  Master's  chamber  was  built, 

46 


THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE 

between  1460  and  1466,  with  the  room  usually 
called  elsewhere  '  Combination  Room '  or  *  College 
Parlour,'  but  here  'the  Stone  Parlour,'  beneath 
it.  This  latter,  which  was  once  remarkable  for 
containing  portraits  of  the  principal  benefactors, 
painted  on  panel,  with  a  commemorative  distich 
inscribed  under  each,  remains  to  this  day  in  its 
ancient  position,  though  considerably  enlarged 
and  beautified. 

This  rapid  survey  will  have  shown  us  that 
one  hundred  and  eighty  years  had  elapsed  be- 
fore the  familiar  disposition  of  buildings  round 
a  quadrangle  had  been  achieved ;  and  even  then 
the  fourth  side  was  incomplete.  Another  cen- 
tury and  more  went  by  before  any  other  build- 
ings were  undertaken,  and  then  (1590)  the 
present  library — which  makes  so  picturesque 
an  appearance  towards  the  street,  with  its  lofty 
gable  and  projecting  bay-window — or  rather  the 
western  portion  of  it,  was  begun  in  accordance 
with  the  Will  of  Dr.  Andrew  Perne,  Master 
from  1554  to  1580.  During  that  eventful  period 
he  had  adroitly  changed  his  opinion  several 
times;  and  though  on  one  memorable  occasion 
in  Mary's  reign,  to  be  narrated  presently,  he 
appeared  to  have  compromised  himself  in  favour 

47 


CAMBRIDGE 

of  the  Church  of  Rome,  he  managed  soon  after 
to  discover  new  beauties  in  the  reformed  re- 
ligion, signed  the  Thirty -nine  Articles,  and 
preached  a  sermon  before  Queen  Elizabeth 
which  her  Majesty  was  pleased  warmly  to 
approve.  These  changes  of  opinion  exposed 
him  to  no  little  ridicule.  The  wits  of  the 
University  added  a  new  verb  to  the  Latin  lan- 
guage, pemarey  'to  change  one's  opinion.'  It 
became  proverbial  to  say  of  a  cloak  that  had 
been  turned,  '  It  has  been  Perned.'  The  letters 
A.P.A.P.  on  the  weathercock  of  St.  Peter's 
Church  were  explained  to  mean  '  Andrew  Perne 
a  Papist,'  or  'Andrew  Perne  a  Protestant,' 
according  to  the  fancy  of  the  reader,  and  the 
like.  To  his  college,  however,  he  was  uniformly 
steadfast  in  his  allegiance;  bequeathing  to  it 
his  books,  with  minute  directions  for  their 
chaining  and  safe  keeping,  and  money  enough 
to  build  the  new  library  aforesaid.  Nor  did 
he  forget  the  University,  to  whose  Library  he 
was  a  generous  contributor;  indeed,  if  his  de- 
fence had  to  be  undertaken,  it  might  be  argued 
that  his  course  on  public  occasions  was  dictated 
by  a  wise  prudence — that  changes  of  opinion 
were  unavoidable  in  such  times  as  his,  when 

48 


THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE 

the  religion  of  the  country  changed  three  or 
four  times  in  ten  years;  and  that  he  trimmed 
in  matters  of  outward  observance  in  order  to 
be  at  hand  to  help  in  those  that  were  essential. 

During  all  this  while  the  college  had  been 
content  with  the  chancel  of  the  parish  church 
for  a  chapel.  It  had  been  rebuilt  since  the 
foundation,  and  joined  to  the  college  by  a 
gallery,  like  that  which  we  have  seen  at  Corpus. 
In  1625,  however,  Dr.  Matthew  Wren,  uncle  of 
the  celebrated  architect,  became  Master.  He, 
in  the  words  of  his  biographer,  '  seeing  the 
publick  Offices  of  Religion  less  decently  per- 
form'd,  and  the  Service  of  God  depending  on 
the  Courtesy  of  others,  for  want  of  a  convenient 
Oratory  within  the  Walls  of  the  College,'  set 
about  the  erection  of  a  separate  chapel.  It  was 
consecrated  March  17,  1632,  but  the  exterior 
decorations  and  the  interior  fittings  were  not 
completed  until  some  years  afterwards,  by 
Bishop  Cosin,  who  laid  himself  open  to  bitter 
censure  from  the  Puritans  by  the  introduction 
of  a  gorgeous  ceremonial,  incense,  Latin  service- 
books,  and  the  like.  The  cloisters,  north  and 
south  of  the  chapel,  were  erected  at  the  same 
time.  That  to  the  south  led  to  the  Master's 
G  49 


CAMBRIDGE 

gallery,  erected  for  his  use  over  Dr.  Perne's 
library. 

Lastly,  just  a  century  after  the  consecration 
of  the  chapel,  a  grand  design  was  prepared  for 
putting  a  front  upon  the  college,  in  the  most 
approved  Italian  style  then  in  fashion.  This 
was  the  work  of  Mr.  Burrough  of  Caius  College, 
afterwards  Master,  who  has  the  credit  of  having 
built  the  Senate  House.  He  proposed  to  pull 
down  the  library,  with  the  two  cloisters,  and 
to  construct  in  their  room  two  piles  of  building 
of  three  floors  each,  connected  with  the  chapel 
by  galleries  of  equal  height,  supported  on  a 
cloister  in  the  same  style.  The  northernmost 
building  was  first  undertaken,  and  is  still  stand- 
ing. Happily  that  caiise  which  has  averted  so 
many  architectural  disasters,  want  of  funds, 
came  to  the  rescue  in  this  instance,  and  the 
library  and  cloisters  were  saved  from  destruc- 
tion. 

The  picturesque  turret,  or  tower-staircase,  at 
the  junction  of  the  Hall  and  Master's  chambers, 
is  a  characteristic  feature  of  early  collegiate 
foundations.  By  means  of  it  the  Master  could 
obtain  access  to  the  Combination  Room  (in 
which  meetings  for  business  were  held),  and  to 

50 


THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE 

the  Hall,  without  crossing  the  court.  In  some 
colleges  the  Master's  chamber  was  so  arranged 
that  he  could  reach  all  the  buildings  in  the 
same  way.  For  to  understand  the  collegiate 
system,  the  position  of  the  Master,  as  at  first 
constituted,  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind. 
The  very  names  given  to  him  in  the  older 
statutes,  Master  (magister),  Keeper  (custos),  Head 
(caput),  not  to  mention  the  language  in  which 
his  duties  are  defined,  and  the  elaborate  ana- 
logies in  which  he  is  compared  to  the  helmsman 
of  a  ship,  and  to  the  head,  the  eye,  and  the 
heart  of  the  human  body,  or  even,  as  at  Corpus 
Christi  College,  Oxford,  to  the  queen-bee  in  a 
hive,  all  indicate  that  he  was  to  be  a  sovereign 
prince,  rather  than  a  constitutional  king.  The 
care  of  the  entire  community  developed  upon 
him,  and  though  the  Deans  would  assist  him 
in  discipline,  and  the  Bursars  in  finance,  it  was 
his  duty  to  see  that  they  performed  theirs;  in 
fine,  he  was  '  to  give  his  most  earnest  attention 
to  all  matters,  spiritual  or  temporal,  within  or 
without,  remotely  or  nearly  concerning  the 
House  and  the  inmates  thereof;  and  manfully 
to  defend  the  rights  of  the  House,  that  so  the 
scholars  might  peacefully  and  diligently  pursue 

51 


CAMBRIDGE 

their  studies,  without  being  hindered  by  the 
aforesaid  cares  and  vexations.'  This  is  general 
language;  but  in  practice  it  appears  that  the 
minutest  matters  of  daily  life  were  referred  to 
him;  and  in  one  college,  at  least,  we  find  that 
at  night  the  keys  of  the  gates  were  brought  to 
him  'upon  a  clogg.'  At  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  a  more  profuse  hospi- 
tality became  the  fashion,  a  gallery  was  added 
to  his  chamber  in  most  colleges.  Here,  as  we 
have  seen,  this  addition  was  not  made  until 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  must 
have  greatly  added  to  his  comfort,  for  it  en- 
abled him  to  reach  the  Chapel  directly  from  his 
rooms.  The  habit  of  living  in  a  separate  house 
was  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  permission 
to  marry  conceded  at  the  Reformation. 

A  stream  of  clear  water  runs  down  each  side 
of  Trumpington  Street  as  far  as  Pembroke 
College,  and  was  at  one  time  much  used  for 
drinking  purposes.  Those  who  benefit  by  it,  or 
are  attracted  by  the  unusual  appearance  of 
running  water  in  a  town,  do  not  know  that 
they  have  to  thank  for  it  that  same  Dr.  Perne 
whom  we  just  mentioned,  though  he  is  not 
responsible  for  the  double  channel.    Before  his 

52 


THE  oi.n 

CONDUIT. 


THE  STORY  OF  PETERHOUSE 

time,  though  there  was  a  public  fountain  in  the 
market-place,  water  for  domestic  use  could  only 
be  obtained  from  private  wells,  or  directly  from 
the  river.  Dr.  Perne  has  the  merit  of  having 
been  the  first  to  suggest  that  a  supply  of  whole- 
some water  might  be  obtained  from  the  Nine 
Wells,  a  group  of  springs  rising  out  of  the  chalk 
near  Great  Shelford,  a  village  some  three  miles 
to  the  south.  The  scheme  was  carried  out  in 
1610  by  the  joint  contributions  of  the  University, 
the  Colleges,  and  the  Town, 

'  as  well  for  the  Cleansing,  Easement,  Benefit,  and 
Commodity  of  divers  and  sundry  Drains  and  Water- 
Courses,  belonging  to  divers  and  sundry  Colleges, 
Halls,  and  Houses  of  Students  within  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  as  also  for  the  cleansing  and  keeping 
sweet  one  common  Drain  or  Ditch,  commonly  called 
King's  Ditch,  and  for  the  avoiding  of  the  Annoyance, 
Infection,  and  Contagion  ordinarily  arising  thro'  the 
Uncleanness  and  Annoyance  thereof,  to  the  great 
endammaging  of  the  Healths  and  Welfare  of  the 
People  of  both  the  said  Bodyes.' 

The  plan  was  drawn  by  Edward  Wright,  M.A., 
of  Gonville  and  Caius  College,  who  was  ac- 
counted the  best  mathematician  of  his  day ;  he 
also  gave  to  Sir  Hugh  Middleton  the  plan  of  his 
New  River. 

53 


CAMBRIDGE 

At  this  time  the  conduit,  of  which  we  give  a 
woodcut,  was  erected  on  the  Market  Hill.  It  is 
popularly  called  Hobson's  Conduit,  from  a  mis- 
taken notion  that  that  celebrated  carrier  built 
it,  or  contributed  largely  to  it.  This,  however, 
was  not  the  case.  His  benefactions  to  the  water- 
supply  of  the  town  were  conferred  by  his  will  in 
1630.  This  conduit  is  no  longer  in  its  original 
position.  In  1849  an  accidental  fire,  which  could 
not  have  been  more  beneficial  had  it  been  the 
result  of  deliberate  design,  destroyed  a  block  of 
houses  between  the  chancel  of  St.  Mary's  and  the 
Market  Hill.  The  ground  on  which  they  had 
stood  was  acquired  by  the  Corporation,  and  the 
present  spacious  Market  Place  laid  out.  The  old 
conduit  then  appeared  to  civic  eyes  too  poor  a 
structure  for  so  large  a  space,  and  it  was  removed 
to  the  end  of  Trumpington  Street,  where  the 
stream  from  the  Nine  Wells  enters  Cambridge. 
The  present  Gothic  structure  was  set  up  on  the 
centre  of  the  enlarged  Market  Hill  in  1855. 

This  improvement  has  deprived  the  Market 
Place  of  the  air  of  antiquity  that  it  once  pos- 
sessed, and  other  changes  have  done  away  with 
many  interesting  associations.  The  Cross,  which 
stood  at  the  south-western  corner,  disappeared 

54 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

about  1786,  and  the  Tolbooth  in  1790.  The  street 
on  the  north  side,  called  Rose  Crescent,  marks 
the  site  of  the  Rose  Tavern,  which  enjoyed  a 
considerable  reputation  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  In  Pepys'  time  it  appears 
to  have  been  noted  for  good  wine,  to  judge  from 
the  quantity  that  he  and  his  friends  consumed 
at  it,  and  the  frequent  allusions  to  it  in  his 
diaries.  In  1768,  when  the  King  of  Denmark, 
husband  of  George  the  Third's  sister,  the  un- 
fortunate Caroline  Matilda,  visited  the  Uni- 
versity, attended  among  other  persons  by  his 
physician.  Dr.  Struensee,  who  was  destined 
shortly  after  to  achieve  so  tragic  a  notoriety, 
he  stayed  at  the  Rose,  and  from  a  window  that 
looked  on  the  Market  Place  saw  the  fireworks 
and  illuminations  given  in  his  honour  by  the 
town.  Professor  Pryme  records  in  his  Auto- 
biographical Recollections  that  in  his  under- 
graduate days  (about  1799)  there  was  a  room 
set  apart  in  the  Rose  Inn  as  a  Coffee-house,  to 
which  men  resorted  to  take  tea  or  coffee  on 
summer  evenings  when  there  was  no  fire  in 
their  rooms.  On  the  west  side  the  principal 
object  is  Great  St.  Mary's  Church,  which  with 
the  Senate  House  and  Schools,  separated  from 

55 


CAMBRIDGE 

it  only  by  a  street,  is  the  centre  of  University 
Life,  as  the  Town  Hall  is  of  Civic  Life.  Is  it  too 
wild  a  stretch  of  fancy  to  imagine  that  the 
changes  which  removed  the  material  obstacles 
that  separated  these  two  great  groups  of  build- 
ings may  foreshadow  the  speedy  removal  of  the 
differences  that  have  so  long  severed  the  two 
bodies  to  whom  they  belong  ? 

Inconvenient  as  the  old  Market  Place  was,  it 
had  witnessed  several  curious  scenes.  In  1382, 
just  a  hundred  years  after  the  foundation  of 
Peterhouse,  the  first  great  explosion  of  feeling 
against  College  encroachments  culminated  in  a 
serious  riot.  The  ringleader,  one  James  de 
Grantchester,  with  the  connivance,  it  is  said, 
of  the  Mayor,  who  ought  to  have  known  better, 
got  together  an  armed  mob.  They  first  sacked 
and  burnt  the  houses  of  the  University  officials ; 
then  they  burst  open  the  gates  of  Corpus  Christi 
College,  which  they  pillaged;  and  lastly,  pro- 
ceeding to  St.  Mary's  Church,  they  possessed 
themselves  of  the  common  chest  of  the  Uni- 
versity. From  this  repository  they  extracted 
the  charter,  bulls,  and  other  muniments,  which 
they  carried  off  in  triumph  into  the  Market 
Place.      There    they   broke    the    seals    of    the 

56 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

charters  with  clubs ;  after  which  they  piled  up 
a  huge  bonfire,  and  burnt  them  all,  amid  the 
rejoicings  of  the  populace.  An  old  woman, 
named  Margaret  Sterr,  gathering  up  the  ashes, 
scattered  them  to  the  winds,  exclaiming, '  Away 
with  the  learning  of  the  clerks !  away  with  it ! ' 
It  was  at  the  old  Cross  in  the  Market  that  the 
Duke  of  Northumberland's  attempt  to  make 
poor  Lady  Jane  Grey  queen  came  to  a  conclusion 
in  which  the  ludicrous  was  strangely  blended 
with  the  tragic.  He  left  London  on  July  14, 
1553,  by  order  of  the  Council,  with  8000  Foot 
and  2000  Horse,  intending  to  intercept,  and  if 
possible,  to  capture,  the  Lady  Mary,  who  was 
known  to  be  on  her  way  to  London.  He  reached 
Cambridge  on  the  following  evening,  and  send- 
ing for  some  Heads  of  Colleges,  and  Dr.  Sandys, 
Master  of  St.  Catharine's  and  Vice  Chancellor, 
bade  them  sup  with  him.  After  supper  he 
desired  Sandys  to  preach  before  him  in  the 
University  Church  on  the  next  day,  which  was 
Sunday.  The  Doctor,  not  daring  to  refuse,  went 
home  sorely  perplexed  what  to  say.  He  rose  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  took  up  a  Bible, 
and  holding  it  before  him,  earnestly  prayed  to 
God  that  it  might  fall  open  at  a  suitable  text. 
H  57 


CAMBRIDGE 

The  book  opening  at  the  first  chapter  of  Joshua, 
he  caught  sight  of  the  words,  'And  they  an- 
swered Joshua,  saying,  All  that  thou  com- 
mandest  us  we  will  do,  and  whithersoever 
thou  sendest  us  we  will  go.  According  as  we 
hearkened  unto  Moses  in  all  things,  so  will  we 
hearken  unto  thee ;  only  the  Lord  thy  God  be 
with  thee,  as  He  was  with  Moses.'  These  words 
he  '  handled  so  wisely,  and  so  warily,  that  his 
enemies  got  not  so  full  advantage  against  him 
as  they  expected,'  says  Fuller.  On  the  Monday 
morning  the  Duke  went  to  Bury,  having  learnt 
that  Mary  had  retired  to  Framlingham,  in 
Suffolk.  The  reinforcements  that  ought  to  have 
met  him  at  Newmarket  did  not  come ;  his  men 
began  to  desert;  and  he  received  from  the 
Council  'letters  of  discomfort.'  Thereupon  he 
returned  to  Cambridge,  where  presently  he 
learnt  that  the  Council  had  proclaimed  Mary 
queen.  The  shadow  of  his  coming  doom  must 
have  fallen  upon  him  when  he  heard  the  news ; 
but  he  seems  to  have  imagined  that  by  prompt 
acceptance  of  the  situation  he  might  save  his 
life.  Once  more  he  sent  for  Dr.  Sandys,  perhaps 
out  of  a  chivalrous  wish  to  do  what  he  could 
to  save  one  whom  he  had  so  deeply  compromised, 

58 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

and  telling  him  that  Queen  Mary  was  a  merciful 
woman,  and  that  he  looked  for  a  general  pardon, 
bade  him  go  with  him  and  proclaim  her.  The 
other  gave  him  scant  comfort:  'My  life,'  he 
answered,  'is  not  dear  to  me,  neither  have  I 
said  or  done  anything  that  urgeth  my  con- 
science. But  be  you  assured  that  you  shall 
never  escape  death,  for  if  she  would  save  you, 
those  that  now  rule  will  kill  you.'  Nevertheless, 
at  about  five  o'clock,  the  Duke  repaired  to  the 
Market  Cross  with  such  nobles  as  were  with  him, 
and  calling  for  a  herald,  proclaimed  Mary  queen, 
throwing  up  his  cap  with  the  rest.  A  few  hours 
afterwards,  he  was  arrested  in  King's  College, 
where  he  was  staying,  by  Roger  Slegge,  Ser- 
jeant-at-Arms, and  on  the  following  day  con- 
veyed a  prisoner  to  London,  where  he  was 
soon  after  executed. 

Four  years  later  another  event  befell  in  the 
same  place,  which  showed  what  clemency  even 
the  dead  had  to  expect  from  the  advisers  of 
Mary  Tudor.  In  1549  two  eminent  German 
divines,  Martin  Bucer  and  Paul  Fagius,  had 
been  sent  to  Cambridge  by  Edward  the  Sixth 
to  lecture  in  Divinity  and  Hebrew.  Both  died 
shortly  after,  and  were  buried  in   Cambridge ; 

59 


CAMBRIDGE 

Fagius  in  St.  Michael's,  and  Bucer  in  St  Mary's. 
Three  thousand  persons  attended  Bucer's 
funeral.  Dr.  Matthew  Parker,  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  preached  the  ser- 
mon; and  the  learned  of  the  University  laid 
epitaphs  on  the  grave.  The  doctrines  taught 
by  these  divines  in  their  lectures  were  no  doubt 
heretical  in  the  eyes  of  Roman  Catholics;  and 
consequently,  when  Queen  Mary  sent  Com- 
missioners to  visit  the  University  in  January, 
1557,  the  very  first  decision  arrived  at  by  the 
Vice  Chancellor  (Dr.  Andrew  Perne)  and  the 
Heads,  who  were  probably  anxious  to  gain  the 
goodwill  of  the  Visitors,  was,  that  suit  should 
be  made  with  them  *by  the  University,  that 
Bucer  might  be  taken  upp  and  ordered  accord- 
ing to  the  law,  and  likewise  P.  Fagius.'  The 
Visitors,  nothing  loth,  proceeded  to  the  tedious 
formalities  of  the  citation  and  condemnation  of 
these  obstinate  heretics.  At  the  third  citation 
Dr.  Perne  preached  before  them  in  St.  Mary's. 
Many  sermons  remarkable  for  bad  taste  have 
been  delivered  in  that  building,  and  much  strange 
doctrine.  Even  in  our  own  time  a  Bedell  of 
the  University  has  been  heard  to  say  that  he 
had  attended  the  sermons  twice  on  every  Sunday 

60 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

for  forty  years,  and  was  thankful  that  he  was 
still  a  Christian.  On  no  other  day,  however, 
let  us  hope,  have  sacred  words  been  so  mis- 
applied as  they  were  on  that  when  Dr.  Perne 
selected,  of  all  texts  in  the  Bible,  a  verse  from 
the  Psalms,  *  Behold  how  good  and  pleasant  a 
thing  it  is,  brethren,  to  dwell  together  in 
unity ! '  By  the  6th  of  February  all  legal 
forms  had  been  satisfied,  the  bodies  had  been 
exhumed,  and  were  guarded  by  the  Mayor  and 
Corporation  armed.  Early  in  the  morning  the 
Visitors,  attended  by  the  University  and  the 
town,  paraded  the  principal  streets  in  procession. 
The  Bishop  of  Chester,  gorgeously  vested,  bore 
the  Host  aloft  under  a  canopy  supported  by 
four  doctors.  The  Heads  of  colleges,  the 
Mayor,  and  the  Aldermen,  carried  lighted 
torches.  As  they  went  they  chanted  the  hymn, 
•  Salve  festa  dies'  One  untoward  incident  marred 
the  success  of  the  display.  As  they  came 
opposite  to  the  Falcon  Inn  in  Petty  Cury,  the 
canopy  caught  fire,  combustibles  having  been 
thrown  upon  it,  as  was  thought,  from  a  window. 
When  they  reached  the  Market  Place  all  was 
ready.  A  great  post  had  been  set  up  in  the 
centre  of  it,  and  a  heap   of  wood  laid  ready. 

61 


CAMBRIDGE 

On  their  arrival  the  chests  containing  the 
bodies  were  set  up  on  end  and  bound  to  the 
post  with  iron  chains,  as  if  the  heretics  had 
been  alive.  The  fuel  was  set  on  fire,  and  as 
it  flared  up  a  number  of  books  that  had  been 
condemned  were  cast  into  it,  a  great  crowd 
looking  on,  for  it  happened  to  be  market-day, 
and  the  town  was  thronged  with  country  folk. 
The  fire  was  scarcely  out  when  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  one  of  the  Visitors,  repaired  to  St. 
Mary's,  and  there  preached  for  full  three  hours, 
setting  forth  Bucer's  '  wyckedness  and  hereticall 
doctryn.'  Verily,  if  martyrs  have  not  been 
burnt  in  Cambridge  as  they  were  in  Oxford, 
the  occasion,  and  not  the  will,  was  wanting. 

In  times  more  modern  than  those  we  have 
been  recording,  the  Market  Place  has  witnessed 
many  another  bonfire,  many  a  hard-fought 
contest,  and  much  effusion  of  blood.  Happily 
the  blood  has  flowed  from  no  part  more  vital 
than  the  nose  ;  the  bonfires  have  commemorated 
only  royal  anniversaries,  or  pacific  triumphs 
such  as  the  victory  of  Smith  over  Jones  for 
the  distinguished  honour  of  representing  a  ward 
on  the  Town  Council;  and  the  battles  have 
been  exercises  in  the  *  noble  art  of  self-defence ' 

62 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

between  townspeople  and  undergraduates  — 
'  Town '  and  '  Gown,'  as  they  are  usually 
denominated  in  Cambridge.  Most  of  these 
Homeric  encounters  have  been  consigned  to 
oblivion,  like  the  kings  who  lived  before 
Agamemnon,  for  lack  of  a  bard  who  should 
hymn  the  deeds  of  daring  done  on  either  side. 
One,  however,  has  been  snatched  out  of  the 
darkness  in  which  the  rest  lie  buried  and  for- 
gotten, for  it  found  a  Homer  in  the  late  Mr. 
Tom  Taylor.  Macaulay  himself  could  hardly 
have  been  angry  at  the  use  made  of  his  metre 
and  his  manner  in  these  amusing  verses,  which 
we  proceed  to  quote.  Their  fun  and  good- 
humour  will  form  an  agreeable  contrast  to 
the  sadness  of  the  last  story  which  we  have 
told.  We  shall  premise  that  the  events  com- 
memorated befell  on  this  wise.  In  March, 
1846,  an  American  dwarf  called  General  Tom 
Thumb  was  exhibited  in  Cambridge.  He  was 
shown  in  the  morning  for  half-a-crown,  and 
in  the  evening  for  one  shilling,  the  latter  ex- 
hibition being  intended  for  the  townspeople, 
the  former  for  members  of  the  University,  who 
are  popularly  believed  in  Cambridge  to  be  the 
possessors  of  boundless  wealth.      But  even  as 

63 


CAMBRIDGE 

that  ingenious  contriver  of  a  hen-house,  who 
made  a  large  door  for  the  hens  and  a  small 
door  for  the  chickens,  found  that  all  the  birds 
preferred  to  use  the  larger  one,  so  did  the 
promoter  of  this  exhibition  behold  his  room 
empty  in  the  morning,  and  crowded  in  the 
evening,  not  with  shopkeepers,  but  with  under- 
graduates. What  great  events  from  little  causes 
spring !  The  burghers,  indignant  at  what  they 
regarded  as  an  invasion  of  their  rights,  hustled 
the  undergraduates,  the  undergraduates  hustled 
the  burghers;  the  fight,  from  a  skirmish  on 
the  first  night,  became  a  battle  on  the  second, 
and  on  the  third  a  deliberately  organised  trial 
of  strength  between  the  opposing  forces.  It 
ended  in  a  complete  defeat  of  the  under- 
graduates; indeed,  we  have  heard  that  they 
turned  tail  and  ran  away,  but  this  we  regard 
as  a  base  calumny.  The  weight  of  the  other 
side,  aided  by  the  truncheons  of  the  police, 
probably  decided  the  fortunes  of  the  day; 
anyhow,  the  gownsmen  fled  through  Rose  Cres- 
cent into  Trinity  Street,  hotly  pursued.  When 
they  reached  Trinity  College,  the  great  gate 
was  opened  to  admit  them, — by  that  time  a 
disordered  and  grievously    wounded    mass    of 

64 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

men  belonging  to  various  colleges — and  there 
they  passed  the  night,  uncomfortable,  but  safe. 
Not  long  afterwards,  the  following  ballad 
appeared.  The  names  are  of  course  fictitious, 
but  at  the  time  it  was  easy  to  recognise  the 
originals,  and  the  incidents  alluded  to. 

THE  FIGHT  OF  THE  CRESCENT 

A  LAY    OF    MODERN    CAMBRIDGE 

*  The  sturdy  undergraduates 

Are  pouring  in  amain, 
Up  through  the  fair  Rose  Crescent, 

The  Market  Place  to  gain  ; 
From  many  a  wild  wine-party. 

From  many  a  sober  tea, 
From  the  distant  halls  of  Downing, 

And  the  courts  of  Trinity. 

•  From  lowly  Queens'  quadrangle 

Where  muffins  are  the  go  : 
From  Magd'lene  famed  for  fast  men. 

From  Cath'rine  famed  for  slow  : 
From  Caius,  where  anxious  proctors 

To  keep  the  gates  shut  try  : 
From  Clare,  where  dons  chivalrous 

Unlock  them  on  the  sly. 

'  There  be  twenty  chosen  gownsmen, 

The  foremost  of  the  band, 
Pupils  of  Sambo  Sutton, 

To  keep  the  Crescent  stand : 

I  65 


CAMBRIDGE 

They  can't  run  if  they  wished  it, 
Perforce  they  bear  the  brunt, 

For  the  gownsmen  in  the  rear  rank 
Push  the  gownsmen  in  the  front. 

'  And  all  within  the  Market  Place, 

And  Market  Hill  along, 
The  townsmen,  far  as  words  can  go, 

Come  it  uncommon  strong. 
But  as  yet  no  nose  is  bleeding, 

As  yet  no  man  is  down  ; 
For  the  gownsmen  funk  the  townsmen, 

And  the  townsmen  funk  the  gown. 

•  When  lo !  a  cad  comes  brimful 

Of  bravery  and  beer ; 
•'  To  arms  !  to  arms  I  the  borough 

Police  will  soon  be  here  !  " 
Through  Market  Street  to  eastward 

Each  townsman  turned  his  eye. 
And  saw  the  hats  and  truncheons 

Rise  fast  along  the  sky. 

•  And  plainly  and  more  plainly, 

Now  may  each  gownsman  know. 
By  form  and  face,  by  port  and  pace. 

Each  big  blue-coated  foe. 
There  in  the  front,  fierce  Freestone, 

Be-whiskered,  may  be  seen ; 
And  stalwart  Serjeant  Seabrook, 

With  buttons  bright  and  clean ; 
And  Buggins  of  the  mutton  fist, 
And  Muggins  with  the  fearful  twist. 
And  Hobbs,  famed  for  his  waving  curls 
And  Dobbs,  adored  by  servant  girls. 

And  gruff  Inspector  Greene. 

66 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

•  Then  out  spake  a  Fellow-commoner, 

In  voice  both  sad  and  slow, 
And  darkly  looked  he  on  his  friends, 

And  darkly  on  the  foe  : 
' '  They  '11  be  too  many  for  us. 

Ten  to  one  against  the  Gown  ; 
Unless  we  get  to  Trinity 

We  '11  be  woUoped  by  the  Town." 

'  Then  out  spake  brave  Fitz- Wiggins, 

Though  a  small-college  man  : 
"To  keep  the  Crescent  'gainst  the  cads 

I  '11  do  the  best  I  can  ; 
And  if  none  will  stand  beside  me, 

Alone  I  '11  face  the  snobs. 
Despite  fierce  Freestone's  truncheon, 

And  the  staves  of  Hobbs  and  Dobbs ! 

'  Then  out  spake  Sir  Tom  Noddy, 

A  son  of  Trinity  : 
"  Lo  !  I  will  stand  at  thy  right  hand, 

And  the  Crescent  keep  with  thee." 
And  out  spake  Merrypebbles, 

A  Johnian  was  he : 
"  I  will  abide  at  thy  left  side. 

And  the  Crescent  keep  with  thee." 

'  Fitz-Wiggins  floored  fierce  Freestone, 

Tom  Noddy  levelled  Hobbs, 
And  cheerful  Merrypebbles 

Blacked  both  the  eyes  of  Dobbs  ; 
And  the  aggravated  townsmen 

Stand  all  aghast  to  see 
On  the  flags  the  unconscious  Peelers, 

In  the  Pass  the  dauntless  Three. 

67 


CAMBRIDGE 

And  on  the  leaguered  Orescent, 
Was  none  would  brave  attack  ; 

But  those  behind  cried  "  Forward  ! " 
And  those  in  front  cried  "  Back  ! " 

'  Meanwhile  their  legs  the  gownsmen 

Right  manfully  have  plied  : 
And  now  they  've  got  to  Trinity, 

And  the  gates  are  opened  wide. 
"Come  back,  come  back,  Fitz-Wiggins," 

Loud  cried  they  from  the  gate ; 
"Back,  Noddy  1  Merrypebbles, 

Back,  or  you  '11  be  too  late !  " 

'  But  the  police  are  on  them, 

And  their  truncheons  thick  they  ply  ; 
Now  the  Fates  save  brave  Fitz-Wiggins, 

What  a  terrible  black  eye  I 
Though  Merrypebbles'  head  be 

The  thickest  in  the  ring. 
It  scarce  can  'scape  unbroken, 

Such  staves  must  make  it  ring. 

'  Alone  stood  Sir  Tom  Noddy, 

But  constant  still  in  mind ; 
Policeman  pitching  in  before. 

And  Trinity  behind. 
"  Down  with  him  1"  cried  false  Seabrook, 

As  he  mopped  his  bloody  face ; 
"  Now  yield  thee,"  cried  the  Inspector, 

"  Now  yield  thee  to  our  grace  1" 

'  But  brave  Tom  Noddy  never  deigned 

An  answer,  no,  not  he  ; 
But  he  floored  the  Inspector  neatly 
As  a  man  might  wish  to  see. 

68 


THE  MARKET  HILL 

And  through  the  storming  townsmen 

And  the  irate  police. 
He  fights  his  passage  manfully, 

And  he  wins  the  gate  in  peace. 

'  And  now,  his  gown  in  ribbons, 

In  the  crowded  court  he  stands, 
And  "  to  call  upon  him  the  next  day" 

Receives  the  Dean's  commands. 
And  then  with  shouts  and  clappings. 

And  hip,  hip,  hurrah,  loud, 
He  passes  on  unto  his  rooms, 

Borne  by  the  admiring  crowd. 

'  But  he  was  rusticated 

By  the  Dons,  that  very  night ; 
And  when  he  showed  them  his  black  eye. 

They  said  it  served  him  right. 
But  long  at  our  wine  parties 

We  '11  remember  how,  like  bricks, 
Stout  Noddy  kept  the  Crescent 

In  eighteen  forty- six.' 


69 


m 


GREAT  SAINT  MARYS  CHURCH:  CLARE  HALL: 
PEMBROKE  COLLEGE 

The  Church  of  St.  Mary  the  Great,  of  which  the 
chancel  and  tower  were  shown  in  our  last  illus- 
tration, demands  a  more  detailed  consideration 
than  we  were  enabled  to  give  to  it  when  describ- 
ing the  Market  Place.  It  is  not  only  the  largest, 
but  on  many  grounds  the  most  interesting, 
church  in  Cambridge.  Though  completed  at  a 
time  when  medieval  architecture  was  declining, 
and  though  we  see  it  now  in  a  somewhat  muti- 
lated condition — without  the  vestry  that  once 
stood  on  the  south  side  of  the  chancel,  and  with- 
out the  tracery  that  once  filled  the  windows  of 
the  aisles,  it  is  still  a  dignified  building.  To 
members  of  the  University  it  is  hallowed  by 
associations  that  go  far  to  efface  any  architec- 
tural shortcomings;   but  the   most  indifferent 

70 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

observer  could  hardly  fail  to  admire  the  lofty 
nave,  admirably  lighted  by  the  twenty  windows 
of  the  clerestory,  and  still  preserving  its  ancient 
roof  of  carved  oak ;  or  to  acknowledge  that  the 
tower,  though  inferior  in  beauty  to  that  of  the 
sister  church  at  Oxford,  is  yet  massive  and  well- 
proportioned. 

The  first  connection  of  the  church  with  the 
University  is  lost  in  that  obscurity  which  neces- 
sarily hangs  over  events  separated  from  our  own 
times  by  five  or  six  centuries.  In  all  probability 
it  was  an  arrangement  dictated,  in  the  first 
instance,  by  convenience,  and  subsequently 
maintained  by  respect  for  ancient  usage.  And, 
when  we  find  secular  ceremonies  habitually  held 
in  St.  Mary's,  we  must  remember  that  the 
peculiar  respect  with  which  churches  are  now 
regarded  is  a  sentiment  wholly  of  modern 
growth.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  cathedrals 
and  churches,  being  the  largest  buildings  in  the 
towns,  were  used  for  all  purposes  for  which  a 
large  covered  space  was  required.  The  altar 
alone  was  regarded  as  a  sacred  spot  which  might 
not  be  profaned  by  unconsecrated  hands,  and 
the  neighbourhood  of  which  was  an  inviolable 
sanctuary.    In  many  cases  the  formal  ceremony 

71 


CAMBRIDGE 

of  consecration  did  not  extend  beyond  the  slab 
on  which  Mass  was  celebrated ;  and  this,  made 
of  some  material  more  precious  than  the  table  of 
which  it  formed  a  part,  was  often  consecrated 
by  the  Pope  or  by  a  Bishop  at  a  distance. 
Gradually  the  sacred  character  of  the  altar 
extended  to  the  part  of  the  church  in  which  it 
stood,  and  the  chancel  was  fenced  off  by  a  screen 
or  railing,  as  a  place  more  holy  than  the  rest  of 
the  church;  but  the  naves  were  still  used  for 
secular  purposes  until  the  Reformation,  and  in 
many  cases  down  to  the  days  of  Archbishop 
Laud.  This  medieval  sentiment  lasted  in  Cam- 
bridge longer  than  elsewhere.  College  chapels 
were  used  for  meetings,  acts,  disputations,  lec- 
tures, and  even  for  dramatic  performances,  quite 
to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  A  sur- 
vival of  this  custom  subsists  to  the  present  day 
in  certain  colleges,  where  declamations,  no 
matter  on  what  subject,  are  delivered  in  the 
chapel.  The  most  remarkable  instance  of  what 
nowadays  would  be  regarded  as  frightful  pro- 
fanity, but  which  evidently  conveyed  no  such 
idea  to  our  forefathers,  occurred  at  the  recep- 
tion of  Queen  Elizabeth  at  King's  College,  where 
the  Society  had  no  large  apartment  at  their  dis- 

72 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

posal  except  the  chapel.  They  therefore  turned 
the  nave,  or  ante-chapel,  into  a  hall  of  audience  ; 
and  there,  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  August  6, 
1564,  after  service,  performed  before  Her  Majesty 
a  play  by  Plautus  in  the  original  Latin.  An 
additional  justification  of  this  treatment  of 
college  chapels  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  in 
the  case  of  many  of  them  there  is  no  evidence 
that  they  were  ever  consecrated,  even  so  far  as 
the  altar  was  concerned.  A  licence,  permitting 
the  more  solemn  offices  of  religion  to  be  per- 
formed within  their  walls,  was  obtained  from 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  sometimes  even 
from  the  Pope ;  but  this  was  not  considered  to 
preclude  the  use  of  them  for  secular  purposes. 
The  introduction  of  the  contrary  sentiment  is 
seen  in  the  language  of  the  formal  Act  of  Conse- 
cration of  those  erected  in  later  times,  in  which 
it  is  usual  to  specify  the  intention  of  the  college 
to  '  separate  the  building  for  ever  from  all 
common  and  profane  uses.' 

There  is  evidence  that  St.  Mary's  was  in  exist- 
ence so  early  as  1204,  when  King  John  granted 
it  to  Thomas  de  Chimeleye ;  and  in  the  last 
quarter  of  that  century  we  find  it  already  used 
by  the  University  as  their  ordinary  place  of 
K  73 


CAMBRIDGE 

assemblage,  and  its  bells  rung  to  call  the 
members  together,  for  which  purpose  those  of 
St.  Benedict's  were  also  employed  on  extra- 
ordinary occasions.  In  1290  it  was  burnt,  with 
several  of  the  surrounding  houses,  the  cata- 
strophe being  ascribed,  as  usual  at  that  period, 
to  the  malice  of  the  Jews.  It  did  not,  however, 
take  long  to  place  it  in  such  a  state  of  repair 
that  it  could  again  be  used  for  service,  for  in 
1303  the  first  notice  of  regular  University 
sermons  occurs.  It  was,  however,  either  rebuilt 
or  extensively  repaired  soon  afterwards,  for  *  the 
building  of  St.  Mary's  Church'  was  proceeding 
in  1315,  and  the  altar  was  consecrated  afresh  in 
1351.  In  1342  King  Edward  iii.  gave  the  advow- 
son  to  his  foundation  of  King's  Hall,  whence  it 
passed  to  Trinity  College,  the  present  patrons. 
Three  different  bodies  are  therefore  interested 
in  the  church  :  the  Master  and  Fellows  of  Trinity, 
the  Parish,  and  the  University;  a  divided,  and 
sometimes  conflicting,  authority,  which  has 
occasionally  been  productive  of  no  small  amount 
of  discord.  Towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century  the  old  church  was  so  much  decayed, 
and  so  incommodious,  that  the  University  under- 
took to  rebuild  it,  little  thinking  of  the  length  of 

74 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

time  the  work  would  take,  the  sum  it  would 
cost,  or  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  funds.  '  All 
Church  work,'  says  Fuller,  '  is  slow ;  the  mention 
of  St.  Mary's  mindeth  me  of  Church  work  indeed, 
so  long  was  it  from  the  founding  to  the  finishing 
thereof.' 

Dr.  Caius  relates,  in  his  History  of  the  Uni- 
versity, that  the  first  stone  of  the  new  church 
was  laid  in  1478,  and  that  it  took  forty-one  years 
to  build,  having  been  completed  in  1519.  This 
statement  probably  applies  to  the  present  nave, 
for  we  find  from  the  Proctors  Accounts  that 
the  University  continued  to  use  some  part  of  the 
church — probably  the  chancel — for  service.  This 
must  have  been  of  considerable  size,  for  John 
Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely,  preached  before  the  Uni- 
versity there  in  1488.  It  is  recorded  that  the 
discourse  was  '  good  and  persuasive '  (bonum  et 
hlandum  sermonem),  and  that  it  lasted  from  one 
o'clock  to  half-past  three,  a  precedent  which 
has  happily  not  been  followed  by  the  Bishop's 
successors  in  that  pulpit.  Congregations  and 
Commencements  were  held  during  the  rebuild- 
ing in  the  churches  of  the  Austin  and  Grey 
Friars.  The  first  stone  of  the  tower  was  laid  on 
Monday  the  16th  of  May  1491,  at  a  quarter  to 

75 


CAMBRIDGE 

seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  *  Would  that  some 
kind  friend  would  finish  it ! '  is  the  aspiration  of 
Dr.  Caius,  in  recording  the  tardy  completion  of 
the  nave;  but  though  the  worthy  doctor  lived 
for  fifty-four  years  after  that  event,  he  left  the 
tower  still  not  more  than  half  built.  The  tale 
of  its  slow  and  halting  progress  is  curious  and 
instructive.  In  1515  it  had  not  risen  as  high  as 
the  roof  of  the  nave,  and  was  thatched  with 
sedge.  The  bells,  however,  were  then  hung  up 
in  it.  The  parish  books  show  that  it  advanced 
slowly  after  this  date ;  and  in  1536  the  great 
west  window,  a  noble  specimen  of  Perpendicular 
architecture,  was  glazed.  In  1544  one  'Father 
Roth  er am '  was  paid  fourpence  *  for  viewing  the 
steeple.'  He  was  probably  an  architect,  and  the 
result  of  his  inspection  was  a  fresh  outburst  of 
building  activity  in  the  following  year,  with 
materials  from  the  dissolved  monasteries,  whose 
churches  were  eagerly  seized  upon  and  used  as 
quarries.  We  meet  with  payments  for  *  stone  at 
the  Black  Friers,' '  20  lodes  of  slate  from  the  late 
Austen  Fryers,'  '  two  lodes  of  lyme  from  the  late 
White  Fryers,'  and  the  like.  In  1576  the  west 
porch — an  elegant  composition  in  the  cinque- 
cento  style,  which  was  unfortunately  replaced 

76 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

in  1850  by  the  present  meaningless  door  from  a 
design  by  Sir  Gr.  Gr.  Scott — was  erected,  chiefly 
through  the  munificence  of  Sir  Walter  Mildmay, 
founder  of  Emmanuel  College,  who  contributed 
to  it  twenty  tons  of  freestone,  taken  probably 
from  some  of  the  Dominican  buildings.  At  about 
this  time  it  was  contemplated  to  complete  the 
tower  by  a  spire  eighty  feet  high,  to  be  built  out 
of  the  materials  of  Thorney  Abbey  in  Hunting- 
donshire, and  stone  contributed  by  Sir  Walter 
Mildmay  from  the  oolite  quarries  at  King's  ClifiPe 
in  Northamptonshire.  For  some  unknown,  and 
much  to  be  regretted,  cause,  this  design  was 
abandoned.  The  work  which  had  been  so  tedi- 
ously prolonged  was  now  drawing  to  a  close  at 
last.  In  1593  the  parish  authorities,  weary  of 
the  long  delay,  took  the  matter  into  their  own 
hands,  and  agreed  to  finish  the  building  of  the 
steeple.  This  they  accomplished  in  1596,  when 
the  bells  •  were  all  runge  oute  and  never  afore.' 
Twelve  years  later,  in  1608,  the  tower  was  finally 
completed  by  the  addition  of  the  cresting,  and  of 
the  stone  balls  surmounting  the  towers,  as  shown 
in  Loggan's  print.  This  was  the  work  of  Robert 
Grumbold,  master-mason  of  Clare  Hall,  to  whose 
good  taste  part,  at  least,  of  the  design  of  that 

77 


CAMBRIDGE 

College  is  due.  The  cresting  has  long  since  dis- 
appeared, but  the  balls  remained  until  1842, 
when,  by  the  ill-advised  zeal  of  some  hot-headed 
members  of  the  Camden  Society,  they  were 
thrown  down.  They  were  not  in  themselves 
beautiful,  but  they  served  to  mark  the  interest- 
ing historical  fact  that  the  tower,  begun,  as  we 
have  seen,  when  Gothic  architecture  was  a  living 
style,  had  not  been  completed  until  that  now 
called  Jacobean  was  in  fashion,  and  on  that 
account  were  well  worthy  of  preservation. 

During  the  building  of  the  church,  and  during 
the  longer  period  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen 
years  that  elapsed  from  the  foundation  to  the 
completion  of  the  tower,  the  University  had 
made  great  exertions  and  sacrifices  to  obtain 
funds.  Dr.  Caius  records  that  £795,  2s.  Id.  was 
raised  by  subscription.  Among  the  subscribers 
were  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  afterwards  King 
Richard  the  Third;  King  Henry  the  Seventh, 
and  his  mother,  the  Lady  Margaret,  Countess  of 
Richmond  and  Derby;  Dr.  Barrow,  Chancellor 
of  the  Household  to  King  Richard  the  Third, 
who  gave  £240  for  the  roof  and  windows  ;  John 
Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely ;  thirty  priors  and  abbots 
of  religious  houses  throughout   England ;  and 

78 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

several  bishops.  The  smaller  sums  given  vary 
from  ten  pounds  to  one  shilling.  The  University 
contributed,  between  1478  and  1519,  the  large 
sum  of  £555,  2s.  Id.,  equal  to  at  least  £5000  at  the 
present  day.  In  order  to  obtain  funds  the  Uni- 
versity had  been  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the 
extraordinary  expedient  of  sending  the  Proctors 
on  a  journey  round  the  country  to  collect  money. 
They  were  absent  for  twenty  days.  The  letters 
that  they  carried  were  composed  by  Roger 
Skelton,  Poet  Laureate,  in  terms,  we  may  sup- 
pose, of  moving  supplication.  Unfortunately 
none  of  these  compositions  have  been  preserved. 
This  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  work.  Subse- 
quently the  usual  means  of  obtaining  money 
were  resorted  to.  The  affluent  were  besieged 
with  begging-letters ;  and  collections  were  made 
at  the  public  Commencements,  and  in  the  dif- 
ferent colleges.  James  Tabor,  Registrar  of  the 
University  in  1600,  records  : 

*The  steeple  was  not  finished  when  I  came  to 
Cambridge,  but  was  covered  with  Tliacke,  and  then 
Mr.  Pooley  Apothecary  first,  and  after  him  John 
Warren,  undertooke  the  worke,  and  had  collections 
in  the  several  Colledges.  I  well  remember  in  Ben- 
nett Coll.  where  I  was  first  Pentioner,  as  Pentioners 

79 


CAMBRIDGE 

we  all  gave  at  the  first  collection  2s  a  peece,  Fellows 
10s  a  peece,  and  Scholars  of  the  house  18d  a  peece, 
Fellow  Commoners  5s  a  peece,  or  more  as  their  Tutors 
thought  fitting.  And  so  a  second  collection  when 
that  would  not  serve :  and  these  two  contributions, 
with  money  usually  gathered  of  strangers  at  Com- 
mencements, could  not  be  lesse  than  about  £800  or 
£1000.' 

The  completion  of  the  Tower  was,  unfortu- 
nately, signalised  by  the  death  of  John  Warren. 
The  occurrence  is  commemorated  by  the  follow- 
ing curious  epitaph  in  the  church  : 

A  speaking  stone 
Reason  may  chaunce  to  blame ; 

But  did  it  knowe 
Those  ashes  here  do  lie 

Which  brought  the  Stones 
That  hid  the  Steeple's  shame, 

It  would  affirm 
There  were  no  Reason  why 

Stones  should  not  speake 
Before  theyr  Builder  die. 

For  here  John  Warren 
Sleeps  among  the  dead 

Who  with  the  Church 
His  own  Life  finished. 

Anno  Domini  1608     Dec.  17. 

As  our  business  is  with  the  church  as  con- 
nected with  the  University  rather  than  as  an 

80 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

ecclesiastical  structure,  we  will  pass  over  the 
curious  accounts  that  have  been  preserved  of  the 
splendid  rood-loft  completed  in  1523,  only  to  be 
destroyed  by  order  of  Archbishop  Parker  in 
1564;  of  the  putting  up  and  pulling  down  of 
altars  according  as  Mary  or  Elizabeth  occupied 
the  throne ;  of  the  '  wiping '  of  '  ymages '  out  of 
the  windows;  and  of  the  sums  realised  by  the 
sale  of  vestments  and  furniture.^  The  first  gal- 
lery for  the  accommodation  of  the  University 
authorities  was  set  up  in  1610,  for  the  use  of 
the  Doctors.  At  that  time  the  Bachelors  and 
Scholars  all  stood,  under  pain  of  paying  a  fine  of 
3s.  4d.  apiece  if  adult;  if  not,  of  being  'openly 
corrected  in  the  comon  scholes  with  the  rodde ' : 
and  it  was  the  privilege  of  those  who  had  taken 
superior  degrees  to  listen  to  the  sermons  with 
their  heads  covered.  To  this  day  in  St.  Mary's 
it  is  customary  to  listen  to  the  '  bidding  prayer ' 
standing,  and  not  to  kneel  when  the  Lord's 
Prayer  is  said  after  it,  but  only  to  cover  the  face 
with  a  hat  or  cap.  The  following  curious  pic- 
ture of  the  condition  of  the  church,  and  of  the 

J  I  must  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  Messrs.  Sanders  and 
Venables'  Historical  and  Architectural  Notes  on  Great  St. 
Mail's  Church,  Cambridge.  Cam.  Antiq.  Soc.  Octavo  Publica- 
tions, No.  X. 

L  81 


CAMBRIDGE 

use  to  which  it  was  put  by  the  University,  is 
extracted  from  a  statement  forwarded  to  Arch- 
bishop Laud  in  1636 : 

'  St.  Mary's  Church  at  every  great  Commencement 
is  made  a  Theater,  and  the  Prevaricatour's  Stage, 
wherein  he  Acts  and  setts  forth  his  prophane  and 
scurrilous  jests  besides  diverse  other  abuses  and 
disorders  then  suffered  in  that  place.  All  the  year 
after  a  parte  of  it  is  made  a  Lumber  House  for  y^ 
Materials  of  y*  Scaffolds,  for  Bookbinders'  dry  Fats, 
for  aumerie  Cupboards,  and  such  like  implements, 
which  they  know  not  readily  where  else  to  put.  The 
West  windows  are  half  blinded  up  with  a  Cobler's 
and  a  Bookbinder's  Shop.  At  the  East  end  are  In- 
croachments  made  by  diverse  Houses,  and  the  Vestry 
is  lately  unleaded  (they  say)  with  purpose  to  let  it 
mine  or  to  pull  it  down.  The  Seats  many  of  them 
are  lately  cooped  up  high  with  wainscot. 

'The  Service  Pulpit  is  sett  up  in  the  midst,  a 
good  distance  below  the  Chauncell,  and  looks  full 
to  the  Belfrie,  so  that  all  Service,  second  Service 
and  all,  (if  any  be)  is  there  and  performed  that 
way. 

'The  Service  there  (which  is  done  by  Trin.  Coll.)  is 
commonly  posted  over  and  cut  short  at  y*  pleasure 
of  him  that  is  sent  thither  to  read  it. 

'  When  the  University  comes  in  for  the  Sermon  the 
chancell  (the  higher  part  of  it)  is  filled  with  boyes 
and  Townsmen,  and  otherwhiles  (thereafter  as  the 

82 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

Preacher  is)  with  Toivnswonien  also,  all  in  a  rude 
heap  betwixt  y^  Doctors  and  ye  Altar.  In  y«  Bodie 
of  the  church  Men,  Women,  and  Scholers  thrust 
together  promiscuously,  but  in  y''  place  onely  before 
y*  Pulpit,  ivhich  they  call  ye  Cock  Pitt,  and  which 
they  leave  somewhat  free  for  masters  to  sitt  in.  The 
rest  of  y"  churche  is  taken  up  by  the  Townsmen  of 
y®  Parrishe  and  their  families,  which  is  one  reason 
among  others  that  many  Scholers  pretend  for  not 
coming  to  this  churche.  Tradesmen  and  prentices 
will  be  covered  when  the  University  is  bare.' 

It  had  been  customary,  from  the  earliest  times, 
to  fit  up  St.  Mary's  Church  for  the  cerem.onies 
usual  at  degrees  with  temporary  galleries  and 
platforms,  the  extent  and  number  of  which 
depended  on  the  importance  of  the  ceremony. 
At  Queen  Elizabeth's  visit  the  stage  extended 
from  the  tower-arch  to  the  chancel.  We  shall 
not  attempt,  on  this  occasion,  to  describe  the 
curious  system  by  which  every  candidate  for  a 
degree  was  obliged  to  keep  one  or  more  '  acts ' 
and  '  opponencies ' ;  that  is,  to  maintain  a  thesis 
of  his  own,  and  to  controvert  one  propounded 
by  another.  Besides  these  *  acts,'  the  University 
at  the  great  Commencement  deliberately  ap- 
pointed a  person  to  the  office  of  Prcevaricator,  or 
Varier.    He  was  expected   to  'vary'  the  ques- 

83 


CAMBRIDGE 

tions  proposed,  to  set  them  in  a  ludicrous  light, 
and  in  the  course  of  his  speech  to  allude  to 
topics  of  the  day,  and  even  to  indulge  in 
personalities.  He  usually  spoke  in  Latin,  but 
English  verse  might  occasionally  be  introduced ; 
and  when  another  form  of  buffoonery,  called  a 
'  Musick  Speech,'  was  allowed,  it  was  wholly  in 
English.  Such  a  '  chartered  libertine '  as  this 
might  easily  make  himself  intolerable.  Even 
the  most  famous  of  the  '  Musick  Speeches,'  that 
spoken  by  Dr.  Roger  Long,  afterwards  Master 
of  Pembroke,  in  1714,  is  a  strange  composition 
for  a  learned  body  to  have  listened  to  on  a 
solemn  public  occasion,  and  there  are  some  lines 
in  it  too  gross  for  quotation.  The  Commence- 
ment on  this  occasion  was  attended  by  Thoresby, 
the  well-known  antiquary.  He  records  in  his 
diary  that  *  the  Prsevaricator's  speech  was  smart 
and  ingenious,  attended  with  volleys  of  hurras  : 
the  vocal  music,  etc.,  was  curious.'  The  whole 
ceremony  occupied  seven  or  eight  hours.  The 
following  extract  will  give  an  idea  of  Dr.  Long's 
humour.  At  a  previous  Commencement  the 
conduct  of  the  ladies  had  been  thought  inde- 
corous, and  in  consequence  they  were  condemned 
to  sit  in  the  chancel  as  a  punishment : 

84 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

•  The  humble  Petition  of  the  Ladies,  \yho  are  all  ready  to 

be  eaten  up  with  the  Spleen, 
To  think  they  are  to  be  lock'd  up  in  the  Chancel,  where 

they  can  neither  see  nor  be  seen  ; 
But  must  sit  i'  the  Dumps  by  themselves  all  stew'd  and 

pent  up, 
And  can  only  peep  through  the  Lattice  like  so  many 

Chickens  in  a  Coop  ; 
Whereas  last  Commencement  the  Ladies  had  a  Gallery 

provided  near  enough 
To  see  the  Heads  sleep,  and  the  Fellow-Commoners  take 

Snuff. 
'Tis  true  for  every  Particular  how  'twas  order'd  then  we 

can't  so  certainly  know, 
Because  none  of  us  can  remember  so  long  as  Sixteen 

Years  ago ; 
Yet  we  believe  they  were  more  civil  to  the  Ladies  then, 

and  good  Reason  why, 
For   if  we    all    stay'd  at  home   your  Commencement 

wou'dn't  be  worth  a  Fly : 
For  at  Oxford  last  Year  this  is  certainly  Matter  of  Fact, 
That  the  Sight  of  the  Ladies  and  the  Music  made  the 

best  Part  of  their  Act. 
Now  you  shovild  consider  some  of  us  have  been  at  a  very 

great  Expence 
To   rig   our   selves   out,   in   order   to    see   the   Doctors 

commence : 
We've  been  forc'd  with  our  Manteau-makers  to  hold 

many  a  Consultation, 
To  know  whether  Mourning  or  Colours  wovi'd  be  most 

like  to  be  in  Fashion : 
We've  sent  to  Town  to  know  what  Kind  of  Heads  and 

Ruffles  the  Ladies  wore. 
And  have  rais'd  the  Price  of  Whalebone  higher  than 

'twas  before ; 

85 


CAMBRIDGE 

We've  got  Intelligence   from  Church,  the   Park,   the 

Front-box  and  the  Ring, 
And  to  grace  St.  Mary's  now  wou'dn't  make  our  Cloaths 

up  in  the  Spring. 
In  Flounces  and  Furbelows  many  Experiments  have 

been  try'd, 
And  many  an  old  Gown  and  Petticoat  new  scour'd  and 

dy'd. 
Some  of  us  for  these  three  Months  have  scarce  been  able 

to  rest, 
For  studying  what  sort  of  Complexion  wou'd  become  us 

best; 
And  several  of  us  have  almost  pinch'd  our  selves  to 

Death  with  going  straight  lac'd, 
That  we  might  look  fuller  in  the  Chest,  and  more  slender 

in  the  Waste. 
And  isn't  it  now  intolerable  after  all  this  Pains  and  Cost 
To  be  coop'd  up  out  of  Sight,  and  have  all  our  Finery  lost?' 

The  convenience  of  these  stages  for  the  accom- 
modation of  a  large  assemblage  probably  led  to 
the  erection  of  side-galleries  in  1735,  which  were 
paid  for  out  of  a  legacy  from  the  munificent 
Mr.  William  Worts.  At  the  same  time  the  Uni- 
versity rearranged  the  central  space  called  in  a 
former  extract  'the  Cock-Pit,'  and  down  to  a 
few  years  ago  'the  Pit,'  where  the  Masters  of 
Arts  sat  on  benches  placed  sideways.  At  the 
west  entrance  of  this  enclosure,  right  in  the 
centre  of  the  church,  a  gigantic  pulpit  was 
erected,  with  reading-desk  and  clerk's  desk  to 

86 


GREAT  SAINT  MARY'S  CHURCH 

match — a  portentous  mass  of  woodwork,  so  lofty 
that  the  preacher  stood  nearly  on  the  same 
level  as  the  occupants  of  the  galleries.  It  was 
octagonal  in  form,  like  the  lower  stage  of  a 
pagoda;  and  it  was  ascended  by  an  internal 
staircase,  an  arrangement  that  produced  a  most 
ludicrous  effect,  for  the  preacher,  solemnly  con- 
ducted by  one  of  the  Esquire  Bedells  to  the  foot 
of  the  towering  structure,  disappeared  for  a  few 
moments,  and  then  was  seen  slowly  emerging 
at  the  top,  head  foremost.  At  this  time  the 
chancel  was  separated  from  the  nave  by  what 
Cole  calls  'a  beautiful  and  lofty  Screen,  with  a 
Canopy  and  Spire  Work,'  which  had  been  set  up 
in  1640.  Within  this  the  Heads,  Doctors,  and 
other  University  dignitaries,  were  seated  on 
stalls,  arranged  in  two  rows  along  the  north 
and  south  walls,  as  at  present.  But,  about 
1757,  these  great  persons  had  apparently  become 
discontented  with  what  they  regarded  as  an 
inferior  position,  and,  as  Cole  records : 

'By  the  advice  and  contrivance  of  my  worthy 
friend  James  Biirrougli,  late  one  of  y<=  Esquier 
Bedels,  and  now  Master  of  Gonville  and  Cains 
College,  the  Chancel  is  quite  altered,  and  y"  Church 
appears  to  much  less  advantage  than  it  used   to 

87 


CAMBRIDGE 

look ;  for  the  Stalls  and  Fine  Screen  are  taken  down 
in  the  Chancell,  and  a  Gallery  built  with  an  arched 
top  of  "Wainscot,  highly  ornamented  indeed  with 
Mosaic  carving,  but  very  absurd  in  the  design :  both 
as  the  Doctors  who  sit  there  are  generally  old 
men,  sometimes  goutified,  and  not  well  able  to  get 
upstairs,  and  also  are  made  to  turn  their  backs  on 
the  Altar,  which  is  not  so  decent,  especially  in  an 
University.' 

This  wonderful  gallery,  officially  termed  *the 
Throne'  or  the  'Doctors'  Gallery,'  but  by  a 
rather  profane,  and  very  silly,  pun,  always 
spoken  of  familiarly  as  '  Golgotha,'  was  a  large 
room.  It  occupied  the  whole  width,  and  about 
half  the  length,  of  the  chancel,  and  was  fitted 
with  seats  rising  in  tiers  one  above  the  other. 
The  back  was  formed  of  large  panels  of  oak. 
The  Vice-Chancellor  sat  in  a  capacious  arm-chair 
in  the  centre  of  the  front  row.  It  should  be 
mentioned  that  the  tower-arch  also  was  blocked 
by  the  organ,  which  had  a  gallery  in  front  of  it. 
This  latter  affected  to  be  of  stone  and  in  the 
Gothic  style,  but  was  really  of  plaster.  When  a 
popular  preacher  occupied  the  pulpit,  and  the 
church  was  quite  full,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  effect  was  good,  and  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity could    see   and    hear  exceedingly  well. 

88 


CLARE  HALL 

But  those  who  had  planned  the  arrangement 
had  forgotten,  or  did  not  care  to  remember,  that 
a  church  is  built  for  other  purposes  than  to 
hear  sermons  in,  and  Archdeacon  Hare  did  not 
speak  too  strongly  when  he  called  St.  Mary's 
'an  example  of  the  world  turned  topsy-turvy.' 
However,  when  the  late  energetic  Vicar,  the 
Rev.  H.  R.  Luard,  undertook  to  get  'Golgotha' 
and  its  accompaniments  removed,  he  encoun- 
tered much  vexatious  opposition  from  all  parties 
interested  in  the  church.  The  old  difficulties 
in  obtaining  funds  were  renewed.  It  took  ten 
years  to  get  £3300  together ;  and  the  present 
excellent  and  decorous  arrangements  were  not 
completed  until  1864. 

In  speaking  of  the  completion  of  the  tower 
of  St.  Mary's  we  mentioned  Clare  Hall.  This 
beautiful  college,  which  more  than  any  other  in 
the  University  has  the  appearance  of  having 
been  built  at  one  time,  was  really  the  work  of 
more  than  two  centuries.  The  east  side  of  the 
quadrangle  was  begun  in  1638,  after  a  furious 
controversy  with  its  powerful  neighbour,  King's 
College,  respecting  its  position,  for  it  had  pre- 
viously stood  close  to  the  street,  in  a  line  with 
the  east  end  of  the  existing  chapel.  The  Society 
M  89 


CAMBRIDGE 

of  Clare  Hall,  being  anxious  to  set  their  college 
back  seventy  feet  from  the  street,  asked  King's 
College  to  grant  them  part  of  their  Butt  Close, 
that  they  might  have  ground  for  recreation  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Cam.  In  order  to  be  sure  of 
obtaining  this,  they  procured  a  royal  mandate, 
directing  King's  College  to  grant  their  request, 
without  waiting  for  the  answer  of  that  college. 
Indignant  at  this  want  of  confidence,  King's 
College  commenced  an  interchange  of  bitter 
invectives  with  Clare  Hall,  which  are  not  a 
little  amusing.  Here  is  a  specimen.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  by  King's  College,  the  Old 
Court,,  opposite  to  Clare  as  it  was  then  placed, 
is  meant. 

*  The  Ansiver  of  Clare-Hall  to  certaine  Reasons  of 
Kings  College  touching  Butt-close. 

'  1.  To  the  first  we  answer :— 1°.  That  y®  annoyance 
of  y*'  windes  gathering  betweene  y*  Ohappell  and 
our  CoUedge  is  farre  greater  and  more  detriment 
to  y'  Cliappell,  then  any  benefitt  which  they  can 
imagine  to  receiue  by  y^  shelter  of  our  Colledge  from 
wind  and  Sunne. 

'2°.  That  y*  Colledge  of  Clare-hall  being  sett  so 
neare  as  now  it  is,  they  will  not  only  be  sheltered 
from  wind  and  sunne,  but  much  deprived  both  of 
ayre  and  light. 

90 


GATE   OF 
ENTRANCK, 
CLARE   COLLEGE. 


CLARE  HALL 

'3°.  That  y'  removeall  of  Clare  Hall  70  feet  west- 
ward will  take  away  little  or  no  considerable 
privacy  from  their  gardens  and  walkes :  for  y*  one 
of  their  gardens  is  farre  remote,  and  y^  nearer 
fenced  with  a  very  high  wall,  and  a  vine  spread 
upon  a  long  frame,  under  which  they  doe  and  may 
privately  walke.' 

A  Reply  of  King's  Colledge  to  y^  Aiisiver  of  Clare- 
Hall. 

'  1.  The  wind  so  gathering  breeds  no  detriment 
to  our  Chappell,  nor  did  ever  putt  us  to  any 
reparacions  there.  The  upper  battlements  indeed 
at  y  west  end  haue  sometimes  suffered  from  y^ 
wind,  but  y*  wind  could  not  there  be  straightned 
by  Clare  Hall,  w'"'  scarce  reacheth  to  y^  fourth  part 
of  y^  height. 

'  2°.  No  whit  at  all,  for  our  lower  Story  hath  few 
windowes  y*  way :  the  other  are  so  high  y*^  Clare- 
Hall  darkens  them  not,  and  hath  windowes  so  large 
y*  both  for  light  and  ayre  no  Chambers  in  any  Coll. 
exceed  them. 

'  3°.  The  farther  garden  is  not  farre  remote,  being 
scarce  25  yards  distant  from  their  intended  building ; 
y^  nearer  is  on  one  side  fenced  w"'  a  high  wall 
indeed,  but  y"^  wall  is  fraudulently  alleaged  by 
them,  and  beside  y^  purpose ;  for  y'  wall  y'  stands 
betweene  their  view  and  y*^  garden  is  not  much 
aboue  6  foot  in  height ;  and  y^  we  haue  any  vine  or 
frame  there  to  walke  under  is  manifestly  untrue.' 

91 


CAMBRIDGE 

At  last  a  royal  letter  settled  the  controversy, 
and  Clare  Hall  obtained  the  ground  they  coveted. 
The  east  and  south  sides  were  finished  in  1642. 
Soon  afterwards  the  work  was  interrupted  by 
the  Civil  War,  and  when  Evelyn  visited  Cam- 
bridge in  1654  he  remarked  of  this  college : 
*  Clare-Hall  is  of  a  new  and  noble  designe,  but 
not  finish'd.'  Work  on  the  west  side,  begun  in 
1640,  was  not  resumed  until  1662.  It  went  on 
slowly,  for  by  the  end  of  1669  the  southern  half 
only,  with  the  gate  leading  towards  the  bridge, 
had  been  completed.  The  north  side  was  built 
between  1683  and  1689;  the  north  half  of  the 
west  side  between  1705  and  1715  ;  and  the  chapel 
between  1763  and  1769.  Our  illustration  shows 
the  gate  of  entrance  in  the  east  front,  as  seen 
from  the  interior  of  the  court.  The  style  of 
the  earlier  portions  is  transitional  between 
the  Elizabethan  and  the  Renaissance ;  and  in 
the  buildings  erected  subsequently,  though  the 
classical  fashions  of  a  later  time  are  apparent, 
the  earlier  style  has  been  so  skilfully  followed 
that  the  harmony  of  the  general  effect  is  not 
disturbed. 

Clare  Hall  was  founded  originally  in  1326, 
and  refounded  in  1338  by  Elizabeth  de  Burgh, 

92 


ORIEL    WINDOW   OF    THE    LODGE, 
PEMBROKE   COLLEGE, 
NOW    DESTROYED. 


PEMBROKE  COLLEGE 

Lady  Clare.  The  first  half  of  the  same  century 
witnessed  the  foundation  of  two  other  colleges 
— King's  Hall,  founded  by  Edward  the  Third  in 
1337 ;  and  Pembroke  Hall,  founded  by  Marie  de 
St.  Paul  in  1347.  She  was  daughter  of  Guy  de 
Chatillon,  Comte  de  St.  Paul  in  France ;  and 
married  Aymer  de  Valence,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  killed  in  a  tournament 
on  his  wedding  day,  though  truth  compels  us  to 
state  that  he  really  died  prosaically  in  his  bed 
three  years  afterwards.  King's  Hall  was  after- 
wards developed  into  Trinity  College  by  Henry 
the  Eighth.  These  noble  and  royal  founders 
have  been  happily  commemorated  by  Gray  in 
his  Installation  Ode : 

'  Great  Edward,  with  the  lilies  on  his  brow 

From  haughty  Gallia  torn, 
And  sad  Chatillon,  on  her  bridal  morn 
That  wept  her  bleeding  Love,  and  princely  Clare, 
And  Anjou's  heroine,  and  the  paler  rose, 
The  rival  of  her  crown  and  of  her  woes, 

And  either  Henry  there, 
The  murder'd  saint,  and  the  majestic  lord. 

That  broke  the  bonds  of  Rome.' 

It  was  in  Pembroke  that  Gray  himself  resided 
from  1756  till  his  death  in  1771.  He  had 
previously  lived  at  Peterhouse,  where  he  had 

93 


CAMBRIDGE 

been  made  the  victim  of  a  practical  joke.  He 
was  very  much  afraid  of  fire,  and  had  been 
careful  to  provide  himself  with  a  rope-ladder  of 
the  proper  length  to  reach  from  his  window  to 
the  ground.  Some  young  men  who  lived  on  the 
same  staircase  raised  an  alarm  of  fire  one  night. 
Gray  hastily  attached  his  ladder,  and  descended ; 
not,  however,  on  to  the  ground,  but  into  a  water- 
butt  that  his  mischievous  young  friends  had 
placed  to  receive  him.  This  outrage  on  a  dis- 
tinguished man  of  letters  does  not  appear  to 
have  aroused  either  sympathy  or  indignation 
in  those  rough  roystering  days.  Gray  laid  a 
formal  complaint  before  the  authorities  of 
Peterhouse ;  and,  soon  after,  '  not  thinking  that 
his  remonstrance  was  sufficiently  attended  to,' 
as  Mason  puts  it,  sought  more  congenial  quarters 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street.  '  I  left  my 
lodgings,'  he  writes  to  Wharton,  'because  the 
rooms  were  noisy,  and  the  people  of  the  house 
uncivil;  this  is  all  I  would  chuse  to  have  said 
about  it.'  At  that  time  Dr.  Roger  Long,  with 
whom  Gray  had  been  intimate  for  some  years, 
was  Master  of  Pembroke,  and  he  and  the  Fellows 
received  the  fugitive  poet,  with  as  much  defer- 
ence, he  says,  as  if  he  had  been  Mary  de  Valence 

94 


PEMBROKE  COLLEGE 

in  person.  The  rooms  he  is  believed  to  have 
occupied  are  on  the  ground-floor  at  the  west 
end  of  the  '  Hitcham  Building,'  which  forms  the 
south  side  of  the  second  court.  Above  them  are 
those  subsequently  occupied  by  William  Pitt. 
With  the  exception  of  this  court — which  the 
hand  of  the  spoiler  has  spared — but  little 
remains  of  the  college  of  his  day ;  the  old 
Master's  lodge,  the  old  hall,  and  the  south  side 
of  the  principal  quadrangle,  have  all  been  pulled 
down  within  the  last  few  years.  We  forbear 
to  express  an  opinion  on  a  proceeding  that 
has  already  excited  many  recriminations,  but 
confine  ourselves  to  perpetuating,  as  far  as  we 
can,  the  beautiful  oriel  of  the  old  lodge,  with  its 
quaint  garden.  The  chapel,  on  the  left  of  the 
picture,  was  designed  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
nephew  of  Dr.  Matthew  Wren,  Bishop  of  Ely, 
who  built  it  as  a  thank-offering  to  God  for  his 
deliverance  from  the  Tower  in  1659,  after  an 
imprisonment  of  eighteen  years,  and  *  in  a  grate- 
ful remembrance  of  his  first  education  which 
was  in  that  Place  received.' 


95 


IV 

THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

'  To  the  glory  of  God  and  advantage  of  the 
realm,  for  the  promotion  of  science,  philosophy, 
liberal  arts,  and  theology,'  Henry  viii.  founded 
Trinity  College.  It  has  been  the  good  fortune 
of  the  House  to  have  been  represented  at  nearly 
all  periods  of  its  existence  by  men  who  have 
been  impressed  with  the  full  significance  of 
these  weighty  words.  In  consequence,  the 
history  of  Trinity  College  has  been,  to  a  great 
extent,  the  history  of  the  University.  Within 
its  walls  have  originated  the  majority  of  those 
schemes  for  the  promotion  of  a  liberal  educa- 
tion which  have  enabled  Cambridge  to  keep  a 
foremost  place  in  science  and  literature;  while 
the  College  itself,  by  encouraging  among  its 
members  a  variety  of  studies,  and  thoroughness 
in  each,  has  been  saved  from  those  ignoble  and 

96 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

harrowing  controversies  into  which  less  widely- 
cultured  bodies  are  prone  to  fall,  and  so  to 
fritter  away  their  lives  and  waste  their  educa- 
tional opportunities.  Hence  it  is  that  the 
College  can  rehearse  so  grand  a  roll  of  names, 
names  of  men  famous  in  theology,  in  science, 
in  literature,  in  public  life,  such  as  no  other 
College  in  either  University  can  put  forward ; 
hence  also  the  reassuring  fact  that  up  to  the 
present  time  there  has  been  no  sign  of  degene- 
racy, no  hint 

'  That  greatness  hath  no  charter  as  of  yore, 
And  men  revolt  from  claims  of  sovereign  lore, 
And  the  bold  majesty  of  mental  strife 
Hath  lost  its  force  in  our  distracted  life ; 
And  though  the  circles  widen,  fainter  gleam 
All  new  emotions  on  the  mirror-stream.' 

The  motives  that  animated  Henry  viii.  to 
establish  this  splendid  foundation  have  not  been 
recorded.  There  is  a  tradition  that  it  was  due 
to  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  John  Redman,  one  of 
his  chaplains,  who  was  the  last  Master  of  King's 
Hall,  and  became  the  first  Master  of  Trinity 
College — an  appointment  which  shows  that  the 
King  did  not  propose  to  destroy,  but  only  to 
extend,  the  foundation  of  his  predecessors ;  but 
it  seems  more  probable  to  account  for  it  on  the 
N  97 


CAMBRIDGE 

supposition  that  Henry  desired  to  mark  the  age 
of  that  Reformation,  to  which  he  had  himself 
so  largely  contributed,  by  some  signal  effort  in 
the  cause  of  education,  on  a  grander  scale  and 
with  larger  endowments  than  the  world  had  yet 
witnessed,  so  as  to  leave  no  cause  for  regretting 
the  loss  of  the  monasteries  on  the  ground  of 
the  diminution  of  facilities  for  learning,  which 
it  had  been  part  of  their  system  to  encourage. 
It  is  likely,  too,  that  he  may  have  wished  to 
leave  behind  him  in  Cambridge  a  more  endur- 
ing fame  than  his  predecessor,  Henry  vi.,  was 
likely  to  acquire  by  King's  College,  or  even  than 
the  Lady  Margaret  by  her  flourishing  College 
of  St.  John's.  That  education  in  a  far  wider 
sense  than  was  usual  at  that  time  was  intended 
by  him  is  clear  from  the  full  statement  of  his 
views  in  the  preamble  to  the  charter.  After 
referring  to  the  special  reasons  he  had  to  be 
thankful  to  Almighty  God  for  peace  at  home, 
for  successful  wars  abroad,  and,  above  all,  for 
the  introduction  of  the  pure  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity into  his  kingdom,  and  the  defence  of  it 
against  the  heresies  and  wicked  abuses  of  the 
Papacy  on  the  one  hand  and  unbelief  on  the 
other,  he  sets  forth  his  intention  of  founding  a 

98 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

college  'to  the  glory  and  honour  of  Almighty 
God,  and  of  the  Holy  and  Undivided  Trinity, 
for  increase  and  strengthening  of  Christianity, 
extirpation  of  error,  development  and  perpetua- 
tion of  religion,  cultivation  of  wholesome  study 
in  all   departments   of  learning,  knowledge  of 
languages,  education  of  youth  in  piety,  virtue, 
self-restraint,  and  knowledge,  charity  towards 
the   poor,  and   relief  of   the  afflicted  and   dis- 
tressed.'   Could  any  scheme  for  a  liberal  educa- 
tion have  then  been  devised  upon  a  wider,  or 
less  sectarian  base  than  this,  or  one  better  able 
to  maintain  itself  among   changes  of  opinion 
and  altered  modes  of  thought  ?    It  is  probable 
that  the  very  general  expressions  of  this  care- 
fully-worded charter  saved  the  College  in  Queen 
Mary's  reign  ;    for  no  personal  feeling  on  her 
part  in  favour  of  her  father's  schemes   could 
have  protected  an  institution  endowed  mainly 
out    of    the    suppressed    monasteries,    had    the 
objects  of  its  foundation  been  more  narrow.    As 
it  was,  so  far  from  suppressing  it  or  despoiling 
it,  she  was  enabled  to  increase  its  revenues  by 
further   endowments    derived    from    the    same 
sources. 
A  description  of  the  site  on  which  the  present 
99 


CAMBRIDGE 

stately  quadrangles  stand,  and  of  the  small 
collegiate  institutions  that  occupied  it — institu- 
tions so  small  that  the  microscope  of  archaeo- 
logical research  has  to  put  on  a  very  high  power 
indeed  to  discover  the  existence  of  some  of  them 
— is  full  of  instruction.  Like  the  faggot  of 
sticks  in  the  old  fable,  when  united  and  amalga- 
mated, their  strength  is  unassailable;  but  in- 
dividually they  were  powerless  for  any  good 
result,  and  would  probably  have  fallen  into 
irremediable  ruin  had  not  a  strong  hand  bound 
them  together.  As  a  general  rule,  reform  comes 
better  from  within;  but  there  are  occasions 
when  it  can  only  be  effected  by  judicious  inter- 
ference from  without.  It  is  easy  to  imagine 
the  clamour  that  must  have  been  excited  by 
Henry  the  Eighth's  drastic  measures.  Unless 
academic  nature  was  very  different  indeed  in 
those  days  from  what  it  is  at  present,  there 
must  have  been  much  talk  of  vested  rights  and 
founders'  wills ;  but  could  those  who  first  estab- 
lished the  hostels  and  colleges  that  he  absorbed 
now  witness  the  result,  it  is  difficult  not  to  be- 
lieve that  they  would  applaud  the  strong-willed 
king  whose  sweeping  policy  abolished  their  well- 
meant  but  feeble  establishments. 

100 


THE  GREAT 

GATE  OF 

TRINITY  COLLEGE. 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

When  Henry  viii.  founded  Trinity  College 
the  ground  was  occupied  by  two  colleges — 
King's  Hall  and  Michael  House — and  several 
hostels.  The  names  of  seven  at  least  of  these 
have  been  preserved.  They  were  not  all  in 
existence  in  1548,  having  been  in  some  instances 
absorbed  by  their  neighbours;  but  their  posi- 
tion has  been  put  beyond  all  doubt  by  recent  re- 
searches. They  were  Gregory's  Hostel,  Crouched 
Hostel,  Physwick  Hostel,  St.  Margaret's  Hostel, 
Tyled  Hostel,  Garret  or  St.  Gerard's  Hostel,  and 
Ovyng's  Inn.  The  main  course  of  the  River 
Cam  was  the  same  then  as  now,  but  a  branch 
of  it  ran  from  the  end  of  Garret  Hostel  Lane 
to  a  point  near  the  north  end  of  the  present 
Library,  separating  off  an  oval  piece  of  common 
ground,  called  Garret  Hostel  Waste.  Neither 
this  waste,  however,  which  is  now  the  green  in 
front  of  the  Library,  nor  any  of  the  ground 
occupied  by  the  avenue  and  walks,  was  at  that 
time  the  property  of  the  College.  Of  the  site  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  river,  the  northern  half — 
where  the  Great  Gate,  Chapel,  Bowling  Green, 
and  Master's  Lodge  now  stand — was  occupied 
by  the  buildings  of  King's  Hall,  and  by  a  wharf 
called   'Dame  Nichols   Hythe,'  or  '  Cornhy the.' 

101 


CAMBRIDGE 

A  lane  leading  to  this  wharf  started  from  a 
point  in  High  Street  close  to  the  present  Great 
Gate,  thence  crossed  the  Great  Court  diagonally, 
and  so  reached  the  river  close  to  the  junction 
of  the  above-mentioned  stream  with  it.  This 
lane  was  called  the  *  King's  Childer  Lane,' 
'  King's  Hall  Lane,'  or  simply  *  Road  to  Dame 
Nichol's  Hythe.'  It  was  further  used  for  the 
conduit-pipe  which  supplied  the  convent  of  the 
Franciscans,  on  whose  site  Sidney  College  was 
subsequently  built,  and  which  now  supplies  the 
Fountain  in  the  middle  of  the  Great  Court  of 
Trinity  College,  and  the  tap  at  the  Great  Gate, 
still  so  largely  used  by  the  neighbours.  This 
latter  supply  is  of  great  antiquity,  for  in  the 
fourteenth  century  we  find  the  occupier  of  the 
house  close  to  it  called  William  Atte-Conduit — 
a  combination  with  which  we  are  more  familiar 
in  the  names  of  Atwood  and  Atwater.  The 
southern  half  of  the  site  was  subdivided  into 
two  nearly  equal  parts  by  a  lane  which  ran 
from  north  to  south.  It  started  from  the  point 
in  the  present  Trinity  Lane  where  the  *  Queens' 
Gate '  now  stands,  and  ran  northwards  until  it 
met  the  previously  mentioned  lane.  Accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Caius,  it  was  called  'le  foule  lane.' 

102 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY   COLLEGE 

At  the  time  of  the  foundation  of  King's  Hall 
it  provided  a  more  direct  comrnunication  be- 
tween Milne  Street  and  Bridge  Street  than 
exists  at  present  through  Trinity  Lane ;  but 
when  Dr.  Caius  wrote,  the  eastern  half  of  King's 
Hall  Lane  had  been  absorbed  by  that  college, 
and  '  le  f  oule  lane '  was  the  only  means  of  access 
to  Dame  Nichol's  Hythe.  The  traffic  through 
it  was  probably  considerable ;  whence  the  un- 
savoury designation  by  which  it  has  become 
known  to  posterity.  Lastly,  the  piece  of  ground 
between  the  south-western  portion  of  the  site 
and  Garret  Hostel  Lane  was  occupied  by  the 
two  hostels  of  Ovyng  and  Garret. 

Of  the  nine  institutions  above  mentioned  the 
oldest  was  Michael  House,  founded  in  1324  by 
Hervey  de  Stanton,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
to  Edward  ii.  As  was  the  case  with  most  early 
colleges,  the  founder  established  his  scholars, 
who  were  only  seven  in  number  at  the  begin- 
ning, in  an  ordinary  dwelling-house,  which  he 
had  bought  for  a  hundred  marks  from  Roger 
de  Buttetourte.  Subsequently,  as  benefactions 
accrued  to  them,  a  hall,  a  kitchen,  and  ranges 
of  chambers  were  constructed,  with  a  conspicu- 
ous gate   of  entrance  from  the  highway,  now 

103 


CAMBRIDGE 

called  Trinity  Lane,  directly  opposite  to  the  end 
of  Milne  Street.  The  court  could  not  have 
measured  more  than  one  hundred  feet  from  east 
to  west,  by  fifty  feet  from  north  to  south ;  yet 
room  was  found  for  a  Master,  eight  Fellows, 
three  Chaplains,  and  four  Bible  Clerks,  besides 
undergraduates  and  servants.  The  hall  was  on 
the  west  side,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  it  was  preserved  until  near  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  that  it  is  the  building 
with  a  high  roof,  buttresses,  and  an  oriel  win- 
dow, shown  by  Loggan  in  his  view  of  Trinity 
College,  at  the  south-west  corner  of  the  Great 
Court.  The  community  had  no  chapel  of  their 
own,  but,  down  to  the  time  of  their  absorption 
in  Trinity  College,  continued  to  use  the  church 
of  St.  Michael  for  their  devotions.  Besides  the 
dedication  to  St.  Michael,  the  house  was  estab- 
lished in  honour  of  the  Holy  and  Undivided 
Trinity,  St.  Mary,  and  All  Saints.  It  is  there- 
fore from  this  small  establishment  that  the 
name  of  Trinity  College  was  in  all  probability 
derived. 

Physwick  Hostel  occupied  the  ground  at  the 
corner  of  Foul  Lane  and  Trinity  Lane,  opposite 
to  Michael  House.    It  derived  its  name  from  a 

104 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

Bedell  of  the  University,  William  Physwick, 
who  bequeathed  it  to  Caius  College,  or,  as  it 
was  then  called,  Gonville  Hall,  in  1393.  In  the 
middle  of  the  following  century  it  absorbed  St. 
Margaret's  Hostel,  a  smaller  establishment  ad- 
joining it  on  the  north.  The  entire  extent  of  the 
ground  thus  occupied  could  not  have  measured 
more  than  two  hundred  feet  by  one  hundred 
and  fifty.  This  limited  extent,  however,  did 
not  prevent  Physwick  Hostel  from  acquiring 
considerable  celebrity.  It  was  managed  in 
rather  a  different  way  from  other  hostels,  as 
Dr.  Caius  has  recorded  with  some  minuteness 
in  his  history : 

'  It  was  not  let  out  to  hire,'  he  says,  '  as  the  others 
were,  but  remained  the  private  property  of  Gonville 
Hall.  It  was  a  tiny  college  (pusillum  collegiuin) 
rather  than  a  hostel,  into  which  the  superabundant 
youth  of  Caius  College  could  overflow  as  into  a 
colony.  It  was  administered  by  two  Principals— 
the  one  exterior,  the  other  interior— who  managed 
the  finances,  and  directed  the  studies  of  the  in- 
mates. The  former  was  appointed  by  the  Master 
of  Caius  College,  the  latter  elected  by  the  students 
themselves,  who  were  between  thirty  and  forty  in 
number.  It  flourished  and  maintained  its  reputa- 
tion for  many  years,  educating  many  eminent  and 
O  105 


CAMBRIDGE 

learned  men,  some  of  whom  were  summoned  to  fill 
honourable  positions  in  the  parent  college,  others 
to  hold  ofiBces  of  state.' 

The  curious  arrangement  which  provided  that 
the  selection  of  one  of  the  Principals  should  be 
made  by  those  whom  he  was  to  instruct,  is  quite 
without  parallel  in  university  institutions.  One 
would  like  to  know  something  more  about  it ; 
what  limitations,  if  any,  were  imposed  upon 
their  choice;  and  whether  the  Head  of  Caius 
College  was  allowed  a  veto  upon  the  regula- 
tions of  the  hostel,  or  made  suggestions  as  to 
the  course  of  study  to  be  adopted  there.  With- 
out some  such  control  life  might  have  been 
pleasant  in  Physwick  Hostel,  but  could  hardly 
have  been  profitable  according  to  academic 
ideas.  Of  the  other  hostels  whose  position  has 
not  yet  been  mentioned,  we  know  that  St. 
Katharine's  Hostel  stood  next  to  Physwick 
Hostel  to  the  east;  that  Tyled  Hostel  was  in 
High  Street  (now  Trinity  Street) ;  and  that 
Crouched  Hostel  and  Gregory's  Hostel,  which 
stood  north  of  Michael  House,  were  afterwards 
united  under  the  latter  name.  All  were  pro- 
bably small  buildings,  perhaps  only  single 
houses,  let  out  to  individuals  for  the  accommo- 

106 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

dation  of  students.  They  are  only  worth  men- 
tioning as  showing  the  number  of  these  in- 
stitutions that  were  once  in  existence,  before 
the  establishment  of  colleges  rendered  them 
unnecessary. 

The  ancestor  in  direct  line  of  Trinity  College, 
and  the  most  important,  though  not  the  most 
ancient,  foundation,  was  King's  Hall.  In  1317 
we  find  King  Edward  II.  maintaining  scholars 
at  Cambridge,  whom  he  addresses  as  '  our  dear 
clerks,  John  de  Baggeshote  and  twelve  other 
children  of  our  chapel  at  the  University  of 
Cambridge';  and  in  1336  King  Edward  iii.  pur- 
chased for  them  a  dwelling-house  and  garden 
of  Robert  de  Croyland.  His  charter,  dated  7th 
of  October,  1337,  mentions  thirty-two  scholars. 
The  house,  to  be  called  the  King's  Hall  of 
Scholars,  or  King's  Hall,  is  described  as  'near 
the  Hospital  of  St.  John ' ;  and  has  been  ascer- 
tained with  tolerable  certainty  to  have  occupied 
a  considerable  part  of  the  eastern  half  of  the 
northern  division  of  the  site  of  Trinity  College. 
It  must  have  been  of  larger  size  than  medieval 
houses  in  general,  for  it  was  capable,  without 
alteration,  of  containing  the  scholars  and  their 
Master.    The  Master  only  had  a  room  to  him- 

107 


CAMBRIDGE 

self;  from  two  to  six  scholars  were  lodged  in 
each  of  the  others.  These  scholars  were  pro- 
bably sent  to  college  at  about  the  age  when 
modern  boys  go  to  a  public  school;  and  their 
position  was  not  very  different  from  that  of 
boys  on  the  foundation  of  Eton  or  Winchester. 
They  were  clothed  and  fed  at  the  royal  expense ; 
and  the  accounts  that  have  come  down  to  us, 
copies  of  which  were  sent  by  the  Master  to  the 
King,  record  every  detail  of  their  expenditure. 
So  minute  are  these  accounts — giving  all  the 
names  of  the  inmates  of  the  house,  down  to 
the  cook's  son,  a  lad  called  'petite  Wille' — 
that  it  would  not  be  difficult,  had  we  time  and 
space  enough,  to  reproduce  almost  all  the  daily 
doings  of  the  inmates:  how  they  lived,  what 
they  ate,  and  what  they  drank.  We  may  per- 
haps attempt  this  on  some  future  occasion.  It 
is  usual  to  suppose  that  medieval  living  was 
coarse  and  rough;  but,  at  any  rate,  they  had 
table-cloths  and  napkins  in  hall ;  and  their  food 
was  plentiful  and  varied.  A  few  random  ex- 
tracts from  one  of  these  volumes  (ranging  from 
1337  to  1351)  are  all  that  we  have  space  for  now. 
In  the  first  place,  we  find  yearly  charges  for  the 
scholars'  robes  and  furs  (pi'o  robis  et  furruris), 

108 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

which  it  appears  they  had  sometimes  consider- 
able difficulty  in  procuring,  for  in  1342  special 
mention  is  made  of  an  expenditure  of  nearly 
five  pounds,  '  when  suit  was  made  for  our 
gowns';  and  the  refusal  of  some  Fellows  to 
contribute  is  noticed  with  no  little  acrimony. 
In  this  year  there  is  a  curious  entry :  '  For 
knives  and  pen-cases  and  ink-horns  given  to 
our  friends  at  court,  18s.  2d.'  Knives  were 
apparently  considered  the  most  acceptable  pre- 
sents for  gaining  a  person's  goodwill ;  for  hardly 
a  year  passes  without  a  charge  for  them,  with 
the  names  of  those  to  whom  they  were  given. 
The  brewery  and  the  stable  are  frequently 
mentioned,  and  great  care  was  taken  of  the 
garden;  in  each  year  we  meet  with  charges 
for  seeds,  usually  parsley  and  garlic,  and  for 
work  done  to  the  vines.  A  piece  of  ground 
was  specially  set  apart  for  their  cultivation, 
and  entries  such  as  the  following  are  frequent: 
'To  one  pruning  the  vineyard.  Id.'  The  cul- 
ture of  vines  was  pretty  general  in  Cambridge 
and  the  neighbourhood  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. There  are  references  to  it  in  most  early 
college  accounts;  and  at  Ely  a  certain  sunny 
slope  is  called  •  the  vineyard '  to  this  day.    There 

109 


CAMBRIDGE 

is,  however,  no  hint  that  amateur  wine-making 
was  ever  attempted ;  or  that  a  college  butler  of 
those  days  ever  commended  his  liquors  with 
'The  port,  sir,  I  know  is  good,  for  I  made  it 
myself/  On  the  contrary,  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence that  red  wine  (vinum  rubeum,  le  claret) 
was  imported  yearly  from  abroad.  At  King's 
College  the  founder  made  hospitable  provision 
for  the  supply  of  two  casks  of  Gascony  wine 
every  year ;  and  a  charge  for  making  '  verjuice ' 
from  the  college  grapes  shows  that  vinegar  for 
salads  was  probably  the  only  liquid  they  pro- 
duced. Numerous  entries  for  poles  and  posts 
and  frames  for  the  vines  point  to  their  use  in 
providing  shady  retreats  from  the  summer  sun. 
The  study  of  a  few  of  the  early  codes  of  college 
statutes,  joined  to  that  of  such  account-books 
as  these,  shows  that  every  college  was  intended 
to  contain  within  the  precincts  all  that  was 
necessary  for  the  religion,  the  studies,  and  the 
recreation  of  the  inmates,  as  in  a  modern  public 
school.  The  most  minute  directions  for  the 
dress  and  deportment  of  the  scholars  are  given 
in  the  statutes.  A  precedent  for  this  had  been 
set  by  Walter  de  Merton  at  Oxford,  who  pre- 
scribes generally  that  his  scholars   are   to    be 

110 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

dressed  decorously,  to  cultivate  seemly  behav- 
iour, to  be  quiet  in  Hall  and  listen  to  a  reader, 
or,  if  obliged  to  address  each  other,  to  speak 
Latin.  These  directions  were  elaborated  in  sub- 
sequent codes  at  Cambridge.  Special  vanities 
in  dress  are  forbidden  by  name ;  such  as,  red  or 
green  shoes,  girdles  enriched  with  gold  or  silver, 
rings  on  the  fingers,  swords  and  daggers,  long 
hair  or  beards ;  neither  dogs,  falcons,  nor  hawks 
might  be  kept,  nor  tournaments  attended.  At 
King's  College  no  scholar  might  go  beyond  the 
gates  unless  accompanied  by  a  Fellow,  another 
scholar,  or  a  servant.  Latin  is  to  be  used  at 
meals ;  but  at  King's  Hall  French  was  permitted 
as  an  alternative.  The  Bible,  however,  was  to 
be  read  aloud  during  dinner,  so  that  the  culti- 
vation of  colloquial  Latin  could  not  have  made 
much  progress.  In  contrast  to  this  severity  of 
discipline,  the  comfort  and  economical  living  of 
the  students  was  everywhere  considered.  Their 
bread  was  baked,  and  their  beer  brewed,  within 
the  College  walls.  Salt  provisions  were  much 
used,  and  on  fast- days  salt  fish.  This  was 
bought  in  large  quantities  at  Lynn  Mart  or 
Ely  Fair,  and  stowed  in  the  College  storehouse 
till  required.    Their  clothes  were  washed  in  the 

111 


CAMBRIDGE 

College  laundry,  and  their  chins  shaved  by  the 
College  barber.  Exercise  was  provided  accord- 
ing to  the  extent  of  the  grounds.  A  College 
with  a  large  garden  could  find  room  for  archery. 
Of  the  sixteen  older  Colleges  thirteen  had  bowl- 
ing-greens, nine  had  tennis-courts,  and  eight 
had  both.  In  the  winter  the  performance  of 
plays  took  place.  These  were  usually  the  classi- 
cal compositions  of  Plautus  or  Terence,  but  in 
later  times  an  original  comedy  was  occasionally 
permitted.  It  is  time,  however,  to  leave  these 
domestic  details,  and  return  to  the  buildings. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  limits  of  Robert 
de  Croyland's  messuage  proved  too  narrow  for 
the  community,  and  by  the  beginning  of  Richard 
the  Second's  reign  we  find  them  engaged  in 
building  operations.  Colleges — especially  newly- 
founded  ones — do  not  build  rapidly,  and  it  was 
not  until  1425  that  the  usual  quadrangular  area 
was  completed.  This  was  a  diminutive  court 
about  forty  feet  square,  on  the  northern  limit 
of  the  site,  just  behind  the  north-west  comer 
of  the  present  chapel.  Small  as  it  was,  it  con- 
tained all  the  necessary  ofiices — hall,  oratory, 
parlour,  kitchen,  bakehouse — and  access  to  these 
different  buildings  was  obtained  from  a  cloister. 

112 


THE    CAM    NliAR 
TRINITY    C()I,I.E(;E, 
Willi    TIIK    TOWER    OF 

ST.  John's  chapel. 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

In  a  few  years  the  west  side  of  the  college  was 
prolonged  southwards  as  far  as  the  boundary 
lane,  and  returned  along  it  eastwards.  Opposite 
to  'Foul  Lane'  a  large  gateway  with  four 
turrets  was  constructed,  adorned  with  the  royal 
arms,  and  a  figure  of  a  king,  carved  in  stone 
and  painted.  This  is  the  statue  of  King 
Edward  ill.,  Tertius  Edwardus  fama  super 
^THERA  NOTUS,  as  the  inscription  records — 
which  gave  its  name  to  the  gate,  and  which 
is  still  to  be  seen  in  a  seventeenth-century 
niche  adorning  the  mutilated  remnants  of 
the  original  structure.  Up  to  the  middle  of 
Edward  the  Fourth's  reign  the  parish  churches 
of  All  Saints  and  St.  Mary's  had  been  used  by 
the  king's  scholars  for  their  devotions,  but 
they  then  built  a  chapel  private  to  themselves. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  stood,  in  part, 
on  the  same  ground  as  the  existing  chapel  does, 
and  some  fragments  of  its  walls  are  probably 
imbedded  in  the  more  modern  ones.  Lastly,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  an  ex- 
tension of  the  site  towards  the  south  having 
been  at  last  effected,  and  the  eastern  half  of 
the  old  'King's  Hall  Lane'  closed,  the  founda- 
tion of  the  splendid  gate  of  entrance  was  laid. 
P  113 


CAMBRIDGE 

It  was  not  completed  until  1535,  and  was  the 
last  work  executed  by  the  community  of  King's 
Hall  before  their  dissolution. 

When  the  union  of  the  colleges,  whose  history 
and  position  we  have  thus  briefly  traced,  had 
been  brought  about,  the  old  thoroughfares  were 
closed,  and  the  new  college  found  itself  in 
possession  of  a  number  of  buildings,  scattered 
over  the  area  of  the  Great  Court,  but  not  con- 
nected together  by  any  unity  of  plan.  The 
Society  possessed,  besides  various  buildings  in 
which  their  members  might  be  lodged,  at  least 
three  halls,  but  only  one  chapel,  of  no  great 
size,  no  convenient  master's  lodge,  and  no 
regular  ranges  of  chambers  suitable  for  a  com- 
munity consisting,  probably,  of  about  three 
hundred  persons.  After  executing  a  number  of 
necessary  repairs,  they  built  a  proper  lodging 
for  the  Master.  Next,  the  chapel  was  under- 
taken, which  was  begun  in  1555,  and  completed, 
or  at  any  rate  the  eastern  portion  of  it,  in  1564, 
as  the  date  on  the  eastern  gable  shows.  There 
is  a  tradition  that  the  founder  had  himself  in- 
tended to  build  a  chapel  in  this  position ;  and 
it  is  unquestionable  that  Queen  Mary  and  Queen 
Elizabeth  both  interested  themselves  in  its  pro- 

114 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

gress.  We  may  console  ourselves,  therefore, 
when  the  beauty  of  the  building  is  called  in 
question,  as  it  often  is,  by  reflecting  that  the 
design  may  have  been  suggested  by  Henry 
VIII.,  and  was  certainly  carried  out  by  his 
daughters. 


115 


THE  FURTHER  HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

The  Great  Court  of  Trinity  College,  of  which 
we  have  already  given  an  illustration,  is  the 
largest  in  either  University,  having  an  area  of 
90,180  square  feet ;  while  that  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  the  next  largest,  with  which  it  is 
natural  to  compare  it,  has  an  area  of  only 
74,520  square  feet.  Nor  is  it  in  mere  size  that 
the  Cambridge  quadrangle  is  superior.  The 
irregularity  both  of  its  dimensions  and  of  the 
position  of  its  buildings  produces  a  more  pleas- 
ing architectural  effect  than  the  formal  correct- 
ness of  Wolsey's  design  at  Oxford.  Though  at 
first  sight  it  appears  to  be  completely  regular, 
it  is  in  reality  exactly  the  reverse.  The  sides 
that  are  opposite  to  each  other  are  not  of  the 
same  length,  none  of  the  angles  are  right  angles, 
and  the  fountain  is  not  placed  at  the  intersec- 
tion of  the  diagonals.     In  criticising  the  two 

116 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

quadrangles,  however,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  that  of  Christ  Church  was  never  completed 
by  the  founder,  and  has  since  been  added  to  and 
altered  in  a  very  unsuitable  manner  ;  while  the 
success  of  the  Great  Court  of  Trinity  is  due  to  a 
fortunate  accident  rather  than  to  a  deliberate 
effort  of  genius  on  the  part  of  the  architect. 

The  transformation  of  the  Great  Court  is  due 
entirely  to  the  taste  and  energy  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Nevile,  who  became  Master  in  1593.  He,  as 
Fuller  quaintly  puts  it,  '  answering  his  anagram 
most  heavenly,  and  practising  his  own  illusive 
motto,  ne  vile  velis,'  not  only  transformed  the 
incongruous  buildings  into  the  stately  order 
we  admire  at  present,  but  erected,  at  his  own 
charge,  the  additional  court  which  still  bears  his 
name.  He  called  to  his  aid  an  experienced 
architect,  Ralph  Symons,  who  had  built  Em- 
manuel College  (1584-86),  and  who  afterwards 
built  Sidney  Sussex  College  (1596-98),  and  the 
second  court  of  St.  John's  College  (1598-1602). 
Under  his  direction  those  portions  of  the  older 
collegiate  structures  that  could  not  be  incor- 
porated into  a  quadrangular  arrangement  were 
pulled  down,  and  the  eastern  and  western  sides 
of  the  quadrangle,  with  the  Queens'  Gate  in  the 

117 


CAMBRIDGE 

latter,  were  erected.  One  portion  alone  of  the 
older  buildings  was  considered  either  too 
beautiful,  or  too  historically  interesting,  to  be 
wholly  swept  away.  The  Gate  of  Edward  iii.  was 
then  standing  at  the  end  of  a  range  of  chambers 
projecting  into  the  area  of  the  court  at  right 
angles  to  the  chapel.  It  was  obviously  necessary 
to  pull  it  down,  but,  in  order  to  preserve  at  least 
the  f a<jade,  it  was  erected  afresh  against  the  west 
end  of  the  chapel,  the  west  vrindow  of  which  was 
blocked  to  receive  it.  To  Nevile  we  owe  also  the 
lovely  fountain,  erected  in  1602,  the  Hall,  erected 
in  1604,  and  the  northern  half  of  the  Master's 
lodge,  with  the  dining-room  and  large  drawing- 
room  over  it.  An  additional  storey  was  added 
to  the  great  gate,  with  the  statue  of  Henry  viii. 
on  the  exterior,  and  those  of  King  James,  his 
Queen,  and  Prince  Charles,  on  the  interior. 
Nevile  must  further  be  thanked  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  ground  on  which  the  New  Court 
now  stands,  and  of  the  spacious  gardens  beyond 
the  river,  where  the  avenue  of  lime-trees  was 
afterwards  planted — the  portion  between  the 
bridge  and  the  road,  in  1674,  and  that  between 
the  college  and  the  bridge,  in  1716.  The  distant 
spire  of  the  village  church  of  Coton  was  for- 

118 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

merly  visible  at  the  end  of  this  delightful  arcade 
of  trees,  framed  in  green  foliage,  whence  the 
avenue  used  to  be  pointed  to  as  a  type  of  a 
College  Fellowship — being  a  long,  but  not  un- 
pleasant road,  with  a  chvirch  at  the  end  of 
it.  But  'the  old  order  changeth,  giving  place 
to  new ' ;  and  ecclesiastical  rewards  are  no 
longer  looked  forward  to  as  the  natural  close 
of  a  successful  academic  career. 

The  Hall,  the  west  side  of  which  is  well  shown 
in  the  drawing  which  illustrates  our  last  chapter, 
was  copied,  with  certain  alterations,  from  that 
of  the  Middle  Temple.  The  same  illustration 
exhibits  the  plan  of  Dr.  Nevile's  Court,  which  is 
a  building  of  two  floors,  raised  upon  the  arcades 
of  a  spacious  and  well-proportioned  cloister. 
When  first  built,  each  side  was  subdivided  by 
pilasters  into  compartments  of  four  arches  each. 
They  were  richly  ornamented,  and  must  have 
broken  the  uniformity  of  the  wall  in  a  very 
agreeable  manner.  Other  and  smaller  pilasters 
divided  the  windows  of  the  first  floor.  These 
latter  were  alternately  solid,  and  pierced  to 
receive  the  spouts  which  discharged  the  rain- 
water, not,  as  at  present,  into  drains,  but  on  to 
the  floor  of  the  court  below.    The  second  storey 

119 


CAMBRIDGE 

was  finished  off  by  a  series  of  picturesque  gables, 
one  over  each  window.  These  details  have  been 
preserved  to  us  in  one  of  Loggan's  admirable 
views,  taken  in  or  about  1688,  without  which 
their  existence  would  never  have  been  suspected. 
In  1755  the  stone  of  which  the  walls  were  built 
had  become  decayed,  and  the  whole  structure 
was  considered  dangerous.  Mr.  Essex,  a  local 
architect,  whose  life  was  spent  in  destroying 
that  which  ought  to  have  been  preserved,  was 
called  in ;  and  under  his  direction  the  walls 
were  securely  built,  the  whole  system  of  decora- 
tion was  swept  away,  and  the  picturesque 
gables  were  replaced  by  a  balustrade  of  a  heavy 
classical  character,  whose  only  merit  is  that  it 
harmonises  exceedingly  well  with  that  of  the 
Library  on  the  west  side  of  the  Court. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  Nevile's  Court 
was  originally  shorter  by  two  compartments, 
or  eight  arcades,  than  it  is  at  present.  These 
were  supplied  by  the  munificence  of  Sir  Thomas 
Sclater,  Mr.  Humphry  Babington,  and  other 
benefactors,  aided  by  the  College  funds,  after 
the  erection  of  the  Library  which  was  com- 
menced by  the  exertions  of  Dr.  Barrow,  Master, 
in  1675.     The    architect    was    Sir    Christopher 

120 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

Wren.      A  contemporary  annalist  records    the 
following  curious  story  respecting  it : — 

'  They  say  that  Dr.  Barrow  pressed  the  Heads  of 
the  University  to  build  a  Theatre,  it  being  a  Profana- 
tion and  Scandal  that  the  Speeches  should  be  had  in 
the  University  Church,  and  that  also  be  deformed 
with  Scaffolds  and  defiled  with  rude  Crowds  and 
Outcries.  This  Matter  was  formally  considered  at  a 
Council  of  the  Heads,  and  Arguments  of  Difficulty 
and  want  of  Supplies  went  strong  against  it.  Dr. 
Barrow  assured  them  that  if  they  made  a  sorry 
Building,  they  might  fail  of  Contributions ;  but  if 
they  made  it  very  magnificent  and  stately,  and  at 
least  exceeding  that  at  Oxford,  all  Gentlemen  of 
their  Interest  would  generously  contribute.  But 
sage  Caution  prevailed,  and  the  Matter,  at  that 
Time,  was  wholly  laid  aside.  Dr.  Barrow  was 
piqued  at  this  Pusillanimity,  and  declared  that  he 
would  go  straight  to  his  College,  and  lay  out  the 
Foundations  of  a  Building  to  enlarge  his  back- 
court,  and  close  it  with  a  stately  Library,  which 
should  be  more  magnificent  and  costly  than  what  he 
had  proposed  to  them,  and  doubted  not  but,  upon 
the  Interest  of  his  College,  in  a  short  Time  to  bring 
it  to  Perfection.  And  he  was  as  good  as  his  Word, 
for  that  very  Afternoon,  he,  with  his  Gardiners  and 
Servants,  staked  out  the  very  Foundation  upon 
which  the  Building  now  stands  :  and  the  admirable 
Disposition  and  Proportion  on  the  Inside  is  such  as 
touches  the  very  Soul  of  any  one  who  first  sees  it.' 
Q  121 


CAMBRIDGE 

A  more  noble  repository  for  books  it  would 
be  hard  to  find.  The  great  architect  fortunately 
condescended  to  design  the  book-cases,  desks, 
seats,  and  other  internal  fittings;  so  that  the 
interior,  as  well  as  the  exterior,  bears  the  im- 
press of  his  perfect  taste  and  excellent  judg- 
ment. The  floor  is  paved  with  black  and  white 
marble,  set  in  squares;  and  ranged  along  the 
sides,  against  the  cases,  are  marble  busts  of  the 
chief  worthies  of  the  College,  many  due  to  the 
chisel  of  Roubiliac,  among  which  those  of  the 
naturalists,  Ray  and  Willoughby,  are  pre- 
eminent for  beauty  of  execution.  At  the  end 
furthest  from  the  door,  in  the  middle  of  the 
central  space,  is  the  statue  of  Lord  Byron  by 
Thorwaldsen,  originally  intended  for  West- 
minster Abbey.  It  has  been  objected  that  Lord 
Byron  is  not  the  greatest  name  in  literature 
that  Trinity  College  could  produce,  and  that 
therefore  the  place  of  honour  in  the  library 
should  not  be  assigned  to  him.  When  a  sculptor 
can  execute  a  finer  statue  of  a  greater  man,  it 
will  be  time  to  dethrone  him.  Meanwhile,  let 
the  work  of  art  remain,  a  fitting  companion  to 
the  busts  that  had  been  put  there  before  it. 

The  Great  Court  remained  as  Nevile  left  it 
122 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

until  the  Mastership  of  Dr.  Richard  Bentley 
(1700-1742),  a  period  which  has  achieved  an 
unfortunate  notoriety  for  a  series  of  the  most 
extraordinary  and  bitter  disputes  between  the 
Master  and  the  Fellows.  At  the  time  of 
Bentley 's  appointment  to  this  important  office, 
he  had  just  triumphantly  routed  a  formidable 
array  of  wits  and  critics  who  had  ventured  to 
assert  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistles  of 
Phalaris.  It  was  admitted  by  those  best 
qualified  to  pronounce  an  opinion  that  Bentley's 
victory  was  crushing  and  complete  ;  nor  does 
it  now  appear  that  he  overstepped  the  proper 
limits  of  literary  controversy.  At  the  time, 
however,  his  opponents  did  not  know  when 
they  were  beaten.  An  anonymous  pamphleteer 
took  refuge  in  abuse,  and  brought  out  -4  Short 
Account  of  Dr.  Bentley  s  Humanity  and  Justice 
to  those  Authors  ivho  have  written  before  him, 
etc.,  etc.;  and  another.  Dr.  Garth,  affected  to 
consider  Bentley's  adversary,  Mr.  Boyle,  as  the 
victor  in  the  fray.  In  his  poem.  The  Dis- 
pensary, the  following  couplet  occurs : — 

'  So  diamonds  take  a  lustre  from  their  foil, 
And  to  a  Bentley  'tis  we  owe  a  Boyle.' 

Bentley's  once  famous  Dissertation  has  long 
123 


CAMBRIDGE 

since  taken  its  place  in  the  list  of  books  that  are 
much  talked  of  but  little  read  ;  and  he  is  better 
known  in  Cambridge  by  the  undignified  squabbles 
that  disgraced  his  Mastership,  or  by  the  bitter 
lines  of  Pope,  who,  in  the  Dunciad,  makes  him 
introduce  himself  to  Dullness  as 

'  Thy  mighty  Scholiast,  whose  unwearied  pains 
Made  Horace  dull  and  humbled  Milton's  strains  ; 
Turn  what  they  will  to  verse,  their  toil  is  vain, 
Critics  like  me  shall  make  it  prose  again.' 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  Master- 
ship of  such  a  college  as  Trinity  would  have 
been  regarded  by  a  man  of  his  studious  habits 
as  a  peaceful  haven,  where  he  might  pursue  his 
favourite  occupations  for  the  rest  of  his  life 
without  let  or  hindrance.  The  result,  however, 
was  exactly  the  reverse.  From  the  very  com- 
mencement of  his  tenure  of  office,  he  set  himself 
in  opposition  to  the  Fellows ;  and  from  that 
time  until  his  death  he  worked  amidst  the  din 
of  incessant  battle,  rather  than  in  that  serene 
atmosphere  of  University  existence,  which  is 
popularly  believed  to  be  unruffled  by  the  tem- 
pests that  agitate  the  outer  world.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  it  would  have  required  no  ordinary 
tact  and  temper  to  make  his  appointment  the 

124 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

success  that  the  advisers  of  the  Crown  intended 
it  to  be.  He  was  from  the  first  unpopular,  as  a 
member  of  St.  John's  College ;  and  he  did  not 
improve  matters  by  replying  to  a  congratula- 
tion in  the  words  of  the  Psalm, '  By  the  help  of 
my  God  I  have  leaped  over  the  wall.'  Again, 
he  was  sent  to  Trinity  as  a  reformer.  The 
college  had  been  declining  in  numbers  and  re- 
putation for  some  years ;  the  kindness  and 
good-nature  of  the  two  preceding  Masters,  Dr. 
North  and  Dr.  Montague,  had  produced  a  re- 
laxation of  discipline,  which  had  in  turn  caused 
both  good  manners  and  literature  to  decline ; 
appointments  to  Fellowships  and  Scholarships 
had  been  made  from  favour  of  the  ruling 
powers,  and  not  from  merit  only,  as  should  have 
been  the  case  then,  and  has  always  been  the 
case  since  ;  and,  lastly,  education  was  in  a  transi- 
tional state — the  old  learning  of  the  schoolmen 
was  neglected  and  despised,  and  a  more  vigorous 
system  having  not  yet  been  adopted,  the  college 
was  in  an  intermediate  state  of  torpor,  from 
which  it  needed  a  vigorous  intellect  to  awaken 
it.  Those,  however,  who  are  content  to  doze 
away  their  lives  in  an  easy  routine  are  certain 
to  resent  the  passionate  eagerness  of  a  thorough 

125 


CAMBRIDGE 

reformer.  Interference  from  any  one  would, 
at  that  time,  have  encountered  violent  opposi- 
tion at  Trinity.  But  a  college  of  which  Newton 
and  Cotes  were  Fellows  would  soon  have  de- 
clared itself  on  the  side  of  literary  and  scientific 
progress ;  and  it  is  sad  to  think  of  the  oppor- 
tunity that  Bentley  missed,  thanks  to  his  own 
perverse  and  headstrong  character.  For  it  is 
clear  that,  notwithstanding  all  that  happened, 
there  was  a  party  ready  to  support  him  on  all 
occasions  so  long  as  support  was  possible ;  and 
that  party  consisted  of  the  best  and  most  learned 
men  in  the  University. 

The  story  of  Dr.  Bentley's  career  has  been 
admirably  told  by  Bishop  Monk.^  In  his  clear 
and  accurate  narrative  the  reader  who  desires 
to  know  more  about  this  dismal  period  will  be 
able  to  follow  the  shifting  fortunes  of  the  com- 
batants: Bentley's  first  attacks  upon  a  society 
that  he  heartily  despised,  and  for  a  time 
frightened  into  abject  submission ;  the  appear- 
ance of  Serjeant  Miller  on  the  scene,  under 
whose  valiant  leadership  the  Fellows  turned  the 

'  The  Life  of  Richard  Bentley,  D.D.,  Master  of  Trinity 
College.  By  James  Henry  Monk,  D.D,,  Lord  Bishop  of 
Gloucester.    2  vols.,  8vo.     London,  1833. 

126 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

tide  of  war  against  their  enemy  by  an  appeal 
to  the  Master's  Visitor,  Bishop  Moore  of  Ely ; 
Bentley's  hairbreadth  escape  from  deprivation 
by  the  sudden  death  of  the  Bishop,  followed 
shortly  afterwards  by  that  of  the  Queen ;  down 
to  the  humiliation  of  the  Doctor  on  a  totally 
different  count  by  an  overwhelming  vote  of  the 
Senate,  when,  on  the  17th  of  October  1718,  a 
grace  for  degrading  him  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  fifty-eight  votes,  and,  as  a  con- 
temporary diarist  records,  '  The  great  Dr. 
Bentley  was  reduced  to  be  a  bare  Harry-Soph, 
being  not  able  to  gain  above  fifty  votes  in  the 
whole  University  ;  though  a  great  many  did 
indeed  stay  away,  that  they  might  not  offend 
him  by  voting  against  him;  yet  one  hundred 
and  eight  appeared  against  him.' 

The  dispute  began  over  a  complete  repair  to 
the  Master's  Lodge,  which  involved  external  as 
well  as  internal  changes,  for  Bentley  insisted 
upon  the  introduction  of  sash-windows  towards 
the  Great  Court ;  and  further,  without  specific 
authority  from  the  Seniors,  built  the  handsome 
staircase  which  leads  to  the  first  floor.  When 
these  alterations  were  first  proposed,  it  was 
stated  by  him  that  they  would  cost  £300  or  £400, 

127 


CAMBRIDGE 

at  least  so  it  was  said;  and  when  at  last  the 
expense  was  found  to  be  three  or  four  times  that 
amount,  the  Seniors,  who  had  meanwhile  become 
greatly  irritated  against  Bentley  for  his  arro- 
gant assumption  of  imperial  power,  disregard  of 
themselves,  and  seclusion  from  the  society  of  the 
Fellows,  refused  to  sanction  the  payment.  It 
was  on  this  occasion  that  he  inquired  'whether 
they  had  forgotten  his  rusty  sword  ? '  and  when 
the  Bursar  forbade  the  workmen  to  proceed,  he 
told  him  '  he  would  send  him  into  the  country  to 
feed  his  turkeys.'  Shortly  after  this  the  indig- 
nant Master  showed  the  College  that  he  could 
use  his  sword  to  some  effect;  for  he  went  the 
length  of  refusing  his  sanction  to  the  election  of 
any  Fellow  to  a  College  Preachership  (which 
was  at  that  time  necessary  in  order  to  hold 
Church  preferment  together  with  a  Fellowship) 
until  the  money  was  paid.  After  a  resistance 
of  two  years,  the  Seniors  yielded.  Bentley's  next 
great  architectural  work  was  the  internal  deco- 
ration of  the  Chapel,  with  oak  panelling  and 
stalls,  and  an  organ,  built  by  the  celebrated 
Father  Smith.  The  Fellows  were  persuaded  to 
subscribe  a  year's  dividend  each  ;  an  unfortunate 
measure  for  them,  for  in  the  years  1703  and  1704, 

128 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

owing  to  the  great  expenses  of  the  College,  only 
half  a  dividend  had  been  received.  They,  there- 
fore, found  their  income  anticipated,  and  actual 
distress  was  the  result  in  several  cases.  All  the 
comfort  they  got,  however,  from  their  pitiless 
tyrant  was  that  '  he  expected  their  complaints, 
but  that  it  would  be  all  one  twenty  years  hence.' 
Shortly  after  this,  in  consequence  of  an  attempt 
to  alter  the  system  of  dividends,  thirty  of  the 
Fellows  plucked  up  courage,  and  drew  out  a  case 
against  their  Master,  which  they  submitted  to 
the  Bishop  of  Ely.  It  is  a  most  curious  and 
entertaining  document,  being  thrown  into  an 
interrogative  form,  as  the  following  paragraphs 
show : — 

'  Why  did  you  according  to  your  own  Will  and 
Pleasure  cause  so  many  and  so  large  Rooms  to  be 
wainscotted  in  your  said  Lodge,  which  could  only  be 
designed  to  entertain  Boarders  therein  for  your 
private  Gain,  and  make  many  other  costly  and  need- 
less Alterations  and  Additions,  and  that  without  the 
Advice,  Consent,  or  Direction  of  the  Senior  Fellows, 
or  the  Bursars,  or  either  of  them,  as  the  said  College- 
Statutes  require  ? 

'  Why  were  the  several  Punishments,  Disgraces, 
and  Injuries,  imposed  on  several  Fellows,  and  many 
Scholars,  during  yoiir  Mastership,  without  any 
R  129 


CAMBRIDGE 

hearing,  statutable  Convictions,  or  Authority ;  and 
that  in  an  insolent  manner,  by  saying.  Hie  est  Indies 
jocusque,  you  were  not  warm  yet,  or  to  that  Effect  ? 

*  Why  did  you  use  scurrilous  Words  and  Language 
to  several  of  the  Fellows,  particularly  by  calling 
Mr.  Eden  an  Ass,  and  Mr.  Rasely  the  College  Dog,  and 
by  telling  Mr.  Cock  he  would  die  in  his  Shoes,  and 
calling  many  others  Fools  and  Sots  and  other  scur- 
rilous Names  ;  and  also  use  several  other  Expressions 
contrary  to  the  20th  Chapter  of  the  said  College 
Statutes,  as  Farewell  Peace  to  Trinity  College,  and 
many  others  of  the  like  Nature  ? 

*  Why  did  you  prophanely  and  blasphemously  use 
and  apply  several  Expressions  in  Scripture  ?  As,  He 
that  honours  me,  I  will  honour.  I  set  Life  or  Death 
before  you,  choose  you  whether,  or  to  that  effect  ? ' 

To  this  challenge  Bentley  was  not  slow  in 
replying.  He  presently  drew  up,  in  the  form  of 
a  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  a  bitter  invec- 
tive against  those  who  had  presumed  to  prefer 
against  him  a  complaint,  which  he  politely 
describes  as  •  the  last  struggle  and  effort  of  vice 
and  idleness  against  virtue,  learning,  and  good 
discipline.'  Here,  however,  we  must  conclude 
our  brief  narrative  of  this  great  quarrel,  which, 
as  it  lasted  for  nearly  forty  years,  illustrated  and 
augmented  by  numerous  controversial  pamphlets 
by  both  actors   and   spectators,  is   an  almost 

130 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

inexhaustible  mine  for  the  study  of  academic 
opinions  and  customs  of  that  time. 

The  classical  facade  imposed  upon  the  Lodge 
by  Bentley  lasted  till  1842,  when  the  Mastership 
of  Dr.  Whewell  was  inaugurated  by  a  restora- 
tion of  the  front,  though  unfortunately  the 
semicircular  oriel  was  not  rebuilt.  Towards  this 
work  Mr.  Beresford-Hope  contributed  £1000 — an 
act  of  munificence  commemorated  by  an  inscrip- 
tion on  the  oriel.  At  that  time  Dr.  Whewell  was 
not  so  popular  as  his  great  talents  and  high 
character  ought  to  have  made  him.  A  brusque 
and  somewhat  haughty  manner  was  mistaken 
for  pride ;  and  the  conjunction  of  his  name  with 
Mr.  Hope's  in  the  inscription  gave  rise  to  much 
indignant  and  unfavourable  comment.  A  wag 
composed  a  parody  on  The  House  that  Jack  huilt, 
which  began  thus : 

'  This  is  the  House  that  Hope  built. 
This  is  the  Master,  rude  and  rough, 
Who  lives  in  the  House  that  Hope  built. 
These  are  the  Seniors,  greedy  and  gruff, 
Who  toady  the  Master,  rude  and  rough, 
Who  lives  in  the  house  that  Hope  built.' 

The  only  other  important  alteration  to  the 
court  is  the  construction  of  the  Combination 
Room,  in  1771,  under  Essex,  to  effect  which  a 

131 


CAMBRIDGE 

hideous  Italian  front  replaced  the  picturesque 
oriel  shown  by  Loggan. 

The  New  Court — or,  as  it  was  intended  to  be 
called,  the  King's  Court,  because  George  iv.  con- 
tributed towards  the  cost  of  it  £1000 — was  begun 
in  1823.  The  architect  was  Mr.  Wilkins.  The 
ceremony  of  laying  the  first  stone  was  the  occa- 
sion of  a  feast,  which  feast  was  the  occasion  of 
a  serious  difference  of  opinion  between  the 
Master  and  Seniors  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
undergraduate  members  of  the  College  on  the 
other.  It  was  decided  that  the  latter  might 
come  to  dinner  if  they  chose,  but  might  not  stay 
to  hear  the  speeches  afterwards.  Indignant  at 
what  they  regarded  as  a  slight  on  their  good 
breeding,  they  preferred  to  stay  away  alto- 
gether ;  and,  much  to  the  surprise  of  the  Fellows, 
the  lower  part  of  the  hall  remained  empty.  The 
next  day  the  following  poetical  epistle  from  an 
undergraduate  of  Trinity  to  a  friend  at  Oxford 
made  its  appearance.  The  motto  was  intended 
to  indicate  the  preference  shown  to  the  masters 
of  arts,  who  wore  black  gowns,  over  the  under- 
graduates, who  wore  blue  ones  : 

'  Out  spake  the  Rover  to  his  gallant  crew. 
Up  with  the  black  flag,  and  down  with  the  bltce.* 

132 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

'  There  was  a  feast,  a  mighty  feast, 

For  Science  and  the  Gown  ; 
The  College  buildings  were  increased, 

The  Speaker  was  come  down  ; 
And  men  of  war,  and  men  of  prayer. 
And  men  of  every  sort  were  there. 
Peer  and  Professor,  Monk  and  Mayor, 

And  Simeonite  and  sinner ; 
Sweating  and  swearing,  fretting  and  frying ; 
Bowing  and  bustling,  crowding  and  crying ; 
And  very  fond  of  speechifying. 

And  very  fond  of  dinner. 

'  Then  looking  big,  and  looking  blue, 

Out-spake  unto  his  gallant  crew 
The  gracious  king  of  Trinity  : 

'  "  'Tis  contrary  to  rule  and  right 
That  we,  the  Seniors,  should  invite, 
To  see  us  drink  and  hear  us  speak, 
The  beardless  bunglers  in  bad  Greek, 

The  learners  of  Latinity. 
We  will  not  make  the  striplings  sick 
With  claret  and  with  rhetoric ; 
The  stream  of  eloquence  and  liquor 
Shall  only  flow  for  Vice  and  Vicar, 
The  Court  and  Caput  sweetly  blent, 
And  members  of  the  Parliament, 

And  Doctors  of  Divinity. 
'Tis  proper  for  young  men  to  pay. 
And  keep  the  peace,  and  keep  away  ; 
They  '11  find  the  dinner  quite  a  treat, 
And  hear  the  band,  and  eat  the  meat ; 
But  to  stay  drinking— strange  vagary 
For  men  in  statu  pupillaH." 

133 


CAMBRIDGE 

'  All  undergraduates  are  vermin 
The  conclave  did  that  day  determine. 

For  fear  of  noise  and  squeeze, 
The  Master  should  remove  at  once 
The  emptiness  of  dish  and  dunce, 
Thick  beer  and  thirsty  bachelor. 
Plum-pudding  and  pert  pensioner, 

Young  scholar  and  old  cheese. 
That  all  unseen  and  all  unheard, 
The  ancient  ones  might  be  absurd ; 
That  all  might  join  in  port  and  pranks. 
In  reasoning  and  returning  thanks  ; 
That  Medallists  might  praise  the  haunches, 
And  Wranglers  fight  about  the  branches  ; 
And  sober  Tutors  drain  the  bottle, 
And  pedants  quote  from  Aristotle  1 
A  child  might  see  how  this  would  end. 
Hot  were  our  passions,  O  my  friend, 

And  very  hot  the  weather. 
We  all  resolved,  in  either  court, 
To  cut  the  business  very  short, 

And  cut  it  altogether. 

Was  it  a  most  atrocious  sin 

To  hurry  to  the  "  Eagle  Inn," 

And  there  to  fret,  and  there  to  fume, 

In  a  great  passion  and  small  room  ? 

Perhaps  it  was.    I  only  know, 

I  sat  me  down  at  five  or  so. 

And  dined  upon  a  charming  plan. 

Clean  cloth,  stewed  eels,  and  Mary  Anne. 

I  am  egregiously  witty, 

And  Mary  Anne  is  rather  pretty  ; 

And  so  we  grew  immensely  merry. 

And  drank  the  Doctor's  health  in  sherry.' 

134 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

Before  leaving  Trinity  College,  it  will  be  inter- 
esting to  mention  where  some  of  the  great  men 
who  have  made  the  College  famous  resided.  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  occupied,  from  1679  to  1696,  the 
rooms  on  the  first  floor  to  the  north  of  the  Great 
Gateway.  The  space  between  the  chapel  and 
the  entrance  to  the  College  is  laid  out  as  a 
garden,  which,  in  those  days,  and  until  a  few 
years  ago,  was  rendered  private  by  a  high  wall. 
This  was  attached  to  the  rooms  in  question.  In 
Newton's  time,  as  Loggan's  print  shows,  it  was 
laid  out  in  trim  flower-beds,  with  three  trees 
close  to  the  staircase  leading  to  it.  In  the  next 
century  the  rooms  were  assigned  to  Dr.  Richard 
Walker,  whose  close  friendship  for,  and  subser- 
vience to,  Bentley,  has  gained  him  a  niche  in 
the  Dunciad.    When  the  great  critic  appears, 

'  His  hat,  which  never  vail'd  to  human  pride, 
Walker  with  rev'rence  took,  and  laid  aside  ' : 

and  at  the  end  of  his  speech  he  cries : 

'  "  Walker  1  our  hat "  ;  nor  more  he  deigned  to  say  ; 
But,  stern  as  Ajax'  spectre,  strode  away.' 

It  is  recorded  that  during  Walker's  time  every 
relic  of  Newton's  studies  and  experiments  was 
'  respectfully  preserved  to    the    minutest   par- 

135 


CAMBRIDGE 

ticular,'  and  pointed  out  to  visitors  'with  the 
most  circumstantial  precision.'  The  noble  statue 
of  him,  by  Roubiliac,  which  occupies  the  place 
of  honour  at  the  west  end  of  the  ante-chapel, 
was  given  in  1755  by  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  Master. 
The  beauty  of  it  as  a  work  of  art  has  been 
amply  recognised  by  the  best  judges.  Chantrey 
called  it  *the  noblest  of  our  English  statues,' 
and  Wordsworth  has  recorded  how  he  used  to 
lie  awake  at  night  and  think  of  it,  when  the 
moonlight  shone  upon 

•  The  ante-chapel,  where  the  statue  stood 
Of  Newton,  with  his  prism  and  silent  face ; 
The  marble  index  of  a  miind  for  ever 
Voyaging  through  strange  seas  of  thought  alone.' 

In  the  rooms  under  these  William  Makepeace 
Thackeray  resided.  It  was  probably  in  remem- 
brance of  them  that  he  placed  Henry  Esmond 
in  'comfortable  rooms  in  the  great  court  close 
by  the  gate,  and  near  to  the  famous  Mr.  New- 
ton's lodgings.'  The  rooms  next  the  chapel,  on 
the  ground-floor  of  the  same  staircase,  belonged 
to  Macaulay.  His  biographer,  Mr.  Trevelyan, 
after  recording  this  fact,  proceeds  as  follows : 

*  From  the  door  of  these  rooms  there  runs  a  flagged 
pathway  which  affords  an  acceptable  relief  from  the 

136 


THE   AVENUE, 

TRINITY 

COLLEGE. 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

rugged  pebbles  that  surround  it.  Here,  as  a  Bachelor 
of  Arts,  he  would  walk,  book  in  hand,  morning  after 
morning,  throughout  the  Long  Vacation,  reading 
with  the  same  eagerness  and  the  same  rapidity, 
whether  the  volume  was  the  most  abstruse  of 
treatises,  the  loftiest  of  poems,  or  the  flimsiest  of 
novels.  That  was  the  spot  where  in  his  failing  years 
he  specially  loved  to  renew  the  feelings  of  the  past ; 
and  some  there  are  who  can  never  revisit  it  without 
the  fancy  that  there,  if  anywhere,  his  dear  shade 
must  linger.' 

Lord  Byron's  rooms  are  said  to  have  been  on 
the  north  side  of  Nevile's  Court,  those  on  the 
first  floor  on  the  west  side  of  the  central  stair- 
case. His  own  account  of  the  wild  life  that  he 
led  in  them,  with  the  'large  assortment  of 
jockeys,  gamblers,  boxers,  authors,  parsons,  and 
poets,'  that  he  gathered  together,  are  probably 
parts  of  that  love  of  exaggeration  of  his  own 
defects  which  was  one  of  his  strangest  charac- 
teristics. The  tame  bear,  'his  new  friend,  the 
finest  in  the  world,'  who  was  '  to  sit  for  a  fellow- 
ship,' was  not,  however,  kept  in  College,  as  is 
often  reported,  but  in  a  more  appropriate  locality 
— a  stable  in  the  Ram  Yard.  Another  legend 
places  Byron's  rooms  at  the  west  end  of  the  first 
floor  on  the  south  side  of  the  same  court ;  and 
8  137 


CAMBRIDGE 

it  was  to  these  that  Countess  Guiccioli,  then 
Madame  de  Boissy,  the  lady  who  had  been  the 
object  of  his  last  and  most  enduring  attachment, 
had  been  directed,  when,  some  thirty  years  after 
her  lover's  death,  she  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
Cambridge  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the  place 
where  he  had  lived  as  a  young  man.  She  had 
given  ho  notice  of  her  visit,  and  the  gentleman 
to  whom  she  brought  a  letter  of  introduction 
was  not  at  home  when  she  arrived.  On  the 
stairs  she  met  one  of  the  Senior  Fellows,  of 
whom  she  inquired  if  she  could  see  Byron's 
rooms,  of  which  he  was  himself  the  occupier. 
He,  thinking  she  was  an  ordinary  sightseer,  with 
a  taste  for  romantic  poetry,  good-naturedly 
acquiesced.  She  examined  the  rooms  carefully 
for  some  moments,  and  took  her  leave.  At 
dinner  afterwards,  the  gentleman  whom  she  had 
meant  to  visit,  having  found  her  letter  and  card, 
mentioned  his  disappointment  at  having  missed 
her.  *  Ah ! '  said  the  other, '  so  that  was  Countess 
Guiccioli !  I  thought  the  lady  took  an  uncom- 
mon interest  in  the  rooms  I  showed  her ! '  Byron 
did  not  make  a  good  impression  in  College. 
Those  who  remembered  him  never  spoke  kindly 
of  him,  and  stories  are  still  current  of  his  bad 

188 


HISTORY  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE 

taste  and  his  morbid  sensitiveness.  Once,  on 
going  out  of  Hall,  he  forgot  himself  so  far  as  to 
mimic  the  gestures  of  the  Master  as  he  walked 
behind  him  towards  the  Combination  Room. 
He  was  fond  of  boxing,  and  affected  the  society 
of  Jackson,  the  celebrated  pugilist,  with  whom 
he  often  walked  and  drove  in  public.  When  his 
tutor,  Mr.  Tavel,  remonstrated  with  him  on  being 
seen  in  company  so  much  beneath  his  rank,  he 
replied,  '  Really,  sir,  I  cannot  understand  you. 
With  the  single  exception  of  yourself,  I  can 
assure  you  that  Mr.  Jackson's  manners  are 
infinitely  superior  to  those  of  the  Fellows  of 
the  College  whom  I  meet  at  the  high  table.' 
The  late  Master  of  Magdalene,  Mr.  George 
Neville  Grenville,  when  a  freshman,  was  one  day 
at  his  rooms  to  take  wine  after  the  early  dinner 
in  Hall.  When  the  party  separated  to  attend  a 
concert  in  the  Senate  House,  Byron  and  Neville 
walked  together.  The  pavement  was  narrow, 
and  Neville  fell  behind  Byron  out  of  politeness. 
Instead  of  thanking  him  for  his  courtesy,  Byron 
exclaimed,  '  Ah !  I  see  what  it  is ;  you  want  to 
spy  out  my  deformity.' 

The  two  Tennysons,  Alfred  and  Charles,  never 
had   rooms  in  College.    The  former  lodged  at 

139 


CAMBRIDGE 

first  in  the  Rose  Crescent ;  afterwards  the 
brothers  had  rooms  together  in  a  house  opposite 
the  Bull  Hotel.  Arthur  Hallam  'kept'  in  the 
New  Court,  on  the  central  staircase  of  the  south 
side,  in  the  set  of  rooms  on  the  first  floor  to  the 
right  as  the  staircase  is  faced.  The  stanzas  in  In 
MemoHam,  where  the  poet  says,  '  Up  that  long 
walk  of  limes  I  past,  to  see  the  rooms  in  which 
he  dwelt,'  have  become  the  parent  of  a  tradition 
that  Hallam's  rooms  were  on  the  west  side  of 
the  court.  The  plain  sense  of  the  words,  how- 
ever, is,  that  he  entered  the  New  Court  by  the 
avenue,  and  so  came  to  the  well-known  stair- 
case. 

•  Another  name  was  on  the  door : 

I  linger'd  ;  all  within  was  noise 
Of  songs,  and  clapping  hands,  and  boys 
That  crashed  the  glass  and  beat  the  floor ; 

•  Where  once  we  held  debate,  a  band 

Of  youthful  friends,  on  mind  and  art 
And  labour,  and  the  changing  mart. 
And  all  the  framework  of  the  land.' 


140 


VI 

king's  college 

The  history  of  Trinity  College,  growing  as  it  did 
out  of  the  small  medieval  foundations  of  Michael 
House  and  King's  Hall,  led  us  away  from  the 
distant  times  in  which  they  were  first  estab- 
lished almost  to  our  own  days.  The  stately 
chapel  of  King's  College,  however — the  last 
thoroughly  medieval  structure  erected  in  Cam- 
bridge— which,  notwithstanding  the  changes 
and  chances  of  the  long  period  that  elapsed 
between  its  foundation  and  completion,  bears 
indelibly  the  stamp  of  the  age  in  which  it  was 
planned,  will  carry  us  back  to  the  period  in 
University  history  from  which  we  diverged. 

The  fourteenth  century  had  witnessed  the 
establishment,  within  less  than  thirty  years,  of 
no  less  than  five  colleges  :  Clare  Hall,  Pembroke 
Hall,  Gonville   Hall,  Trinity  Hall,  and   Corpus 

141 


CAMBRIDGE 

Christi  College,  all  founded  between  1326  and 
1352.  After  this  there  is  a  break  of  nearly  a 
century,  during  which  nothing  was  done  either 
by  royal  or  private  munificence.  The  accession 
of  Henry  the  Sixth  was  the  signal  for  a  fresh 
departure.  Not  only  did  he  found  his  own  mag- 
nificent college,  but  his  Queen,  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  established  a  second  in  its  immediate 
neighbourhood  in  1448.  As  Fuller  quaintly  puts 
it :  *  Indeed,  as  Miltiades'  trophy  in  Athens  would 
not  suffer  Themistocles  to  sleep,  so  this  Queen, 
beholding  her  husband's  bounty  in  building 
King's  College,  was  restless  in  herself  with  holy 
emulation  until  she  had  produced  something  of 
the  like  nature.  A  strife  wherein  wives,  without 
breach  of  duty,  may  contend  with  their  hus- 
bands which  should  exceed  in  pious  perfor- 
mances.' She  proposed  to  call  it  the  College  of 
St.  Margaret  and  St.  Bernard,  but  after  her 
husband's  deposition  the  name  was  changed. 
Andrew  Docket,  the  first  master,  who  had  been 
appointed  to  that  office  by  Queen  Margaret, 
hastened  with  pardonable  subservience  to  in- 
gratiate himself  with  her  successor,  and  so 
cleverly  did  he  manage  that  Elizabeth  Wood- 
ville  consented  to    be  named   as  co-foundress, 

142 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

and  the  college  became  '  the  Queens'  College  of 
St.  Margaret  and  St.  Bernard,'  now  familiarly- 
known  simply  as  Queens'  College.  This  founda- 
tion was  succeeded  by  that  of  St.  Catharine's 
College,  founded  in  1475  by  Robert  Wodelarke, 
third  Provost  of  King's  College. 

It  was  on  the   12th  of  February  1441,  when 
Henry  of  Windsor  was  only  nineteen  years  old, 
that  he  signed  the  charter  of  his  first  founda- 
tion for   a    Rector   and  twelve  scholars   only, 
which  he  proposed  to  call '  The  Royal  College  of 
St.  Nicholas,'  in  commemoration  of  the  saint  on 
whose  day  he  had  been  born.    This  college  would 
have    been    no    larger    than    those    previously 
founded,  and  moreover,  from  the  nature  of  the 
ground,  was  incapable  of  future  extension.    It 
is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  Commissioners 
employed  by  the  King — one  of  whom  was  Dr. 
John  Langton,  then  Master  of  Pembroke  Hall 
and  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University — came  to 
select  a  site  so  cramped  and  so  inconvenient.    It 
had    Milne  Street,  then  one  of    the   principal 
thoroughfares  of  the  town,  on  the  west;  the 
University  Library  and  Schools  on  the  east ;  and 
a  public  lane  on  the  north.    On  the  south  side 
only,  which  was  also  the  narrowest,  had  it  any 

148 


CAMBRIDGE 

outlet  at  all,  and  even  there  the  ground  avail- 
able for  that  indispensable  appendage  to  a 
medieval  college,  a  garden,  was  extremely  nar- 
row. We  ought,  perhaps,  to  be  grateful  for  the 
selection  of  ground  which  the  scholars  presently 
discovered  to  be  too  small  for  their  accommoda- 
tion; for  they  lost  no  time  in  petitioning  the 
King  to  provide  them  with  ampler  habitations, 
and  it  was  partly  in  consequence  of  that  prayer 
of  theirs  that  he  acquired  the  larger  site,  and 
planned  the  noble  college  whereof  Stow  remarks 
'that  if  the  rest  of  the  house  had  proceeded 
according  to  the  chappell  (as  his  full  intent  and 
meaning  was)  the  like  colledge  could  scarce  have 
been  found  againe  in  any  Christian  land.' 

There  were,  however,  other  motives  deter- 
mining the  King's  action  in  this  matter.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  shortly  before  the 
foundation  of  the  college  at  Cambridge,  on 
October  11,  1440,  he  had  signed  the  charter  of 
foundation  of  Eton  College.  Previous  to  this, 
in  July  of  the  same  year,  he  had  visited  Win- 
chester, and  studied  carefully,  from  personal 
observation,  the  working  of  William  of  Wyke- 
ham's  system  of  education.  It  does  not  appear, 
however,  that  he  all  at  once  conceived  the  idea 

144 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

of  connecting  his  school  and  college  together ; 
in  fact,  there  is  evidence  that  he  at  first  in- 
tended that  the  two  should  be  independent. 
Subsequently,  however,  either  from  personal 
conviction  or  from  the  influence  of  those  about 
him,  he  determined  that  his  Eton  scholars 
should  participate  in  the  Cambridge  foundation. 
In  the  charter  granted  to  King's  College,  July 
10,  1443,  he  says : 

'It  is  our  fixed  and  unalterable  purpose,  being 
moved  thereto,  as  we  trust,  by  the  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  that  our  poor  scholars  of  our  Royal 
foundation  of  St.  Mary  of  Eton,  after  they  have 
been  sufficiently  taught  the  first  rudiments  of  gram- 
mar, shall  be  transferred  thence  to  our  aforesaid 
College  of  Cambridge,  which  we  will  shall  be  hence- 
forth denominated  Our  College  Royal  of  St.  Mary 
and  St.  Nicholas,  there  to  be  more  thoroughly  in- 
structed in  a  liberal  course  of  study,  in  other 
branches  of  knowledge,  and  other  professions.' 

Furthermore,  in  order  to  'weld  the  two  colleges 
together  in  an  everlasting  bond  of  brotherhood,' 
he  ordains  that  the  name  of  Rector  shall  be 
abolished,  and  the  Eton  title  of  Provost  be 
adopted  for  the  Head;  and  that  for  all  time 
the  college  shall  be  known  by  the  title  of 
T  145 


CAMBRIDGE 

'Provost  and  Scholars,'  and  have  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  before  granted  to  it. 

The  acquisition  of  the  new  site  was  begun  at 
once.  A  fresh  commission  was  issued  for  the 
purpose,  and  as  each  parcel  of  ground  was 
obtained,  it  was  conveyed  to  the  college.  The 
task  was  beset  with  difficulties  that  would  have 
daunted  a  mind  less  firmly  resolved  on  carrying 
out  the  end  in  view  than  the  King's ;  difficulties, 
indeed,  that  would  have  been  insuperable  except 
by  royal  influence,  backed  by  a  royal  purse. 
The  ground  on  which  King's  College  now  stands 
was  then  densely  populated.  It  occupied  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  parish  of  St.  John  Baptist, 
whose  church  is  believed  to  have  stood  near 
the  west  end  of  the  chapel.  Milne  Street  crossed 
the  site  from  north  to  south,  in  a  direction  that 
may  be  easily  identified  from  the  two  ends  of 
the  street  that  still  remain,  under  the  names 
of  Trinity  Hall  Lane  and  Queens'  Lane.  The 
space  between  Milne  Street  and  Trumpington 
Street,  then  called  High  Street,  was  occupied 
by  the  houses  and  gardens  of  different  pro- 
prietors, and  was  traversed  by  a  narrow 
thoroughfare  called  Piron  Lane,  leading  from 
High    Street   to   St.    John's    Church.      At   the 

146 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

corner  of  Milne  Street  and  this  lane,  occupying 
the  ground  on  which  about  half  the  ante-chapel 
now  stands,  was  the  small  college  called  God's 
House,  founded  in  1439  by  William  Byngham, 
for  the  study  of  grammar,  which,  as  he  ob- 
serves in  his  petition  to  Henry  vi.  for  leave  to 
found  it,  'is  the  rote  and  grounde  of  all  other 
sciences.'  On  the  west  side  of  Milne  Street, 
between  it  and  the  river,  were  the  hostels  of 
St.  Austin,  St.  Nicholas,  and  St.  Edmund,  be- 
sides many  dwelling-houses.  This  district  was 
traversed  by  several  lanes,  affording  to  the 
townspeople  ready  access  to  the  river,  and  to 
a  wharf  on  its  bank  called  Salthithe.  No  de- 
tailed account  has  been  preserved  of  the  negotia- 
tions necessary  for  the  acquisition  of  this  ground, 
between  six  and  seven  acres  in  extent,  and  in 
the  very  heart  of  Cambridge.  From  some  of 
the  conveyances,  however,  we  get  curious  and 
significant  glimpses  of  the  hard  terms  enforced 
by  the  vendors,  who  naturally  were  not  loth 
to  seize  so  golden  an  opportunity  for  enriching 
themselves ;  and  of  the  heart-burnings  that  the 
sequestration  of  so  much  property  for  college 
purposes  gave  rise  to.  The  greatest  offence 
appears  to  have  been  given  by  the  closing  of 

147 


CAMBRIDGE 

the  lanes  leading  down  to  the  river,  which,  as 
we  explained  in  the  first  chapter,  was  of 
primary  importance  to  medieval  Cambridge 
as  a  highway.  In  five  years'  time,  however, 
the  difficulties  were  all  got  over;  the  town 
yielded  up,  though  not  with  the  best  grace,  the 
portion  of  Milne  Street  required,  and  all  the 
other  thoroughfares ;  the  hostels  were  sup- 
pressed, or  transferred  to  other  sites;  the  church 
of  St.  John  was  pulled  down,  and  the  parish 
united  to  that  of  St.  Edward,  whose  church 
bears  evidence,  by  the  spacious  aisles  attached 
to  its  choir,  of  the  extension  rendered  neces- 
sary at  that  time  by  the  addition  of  the  mem- 
bers of  Clare  Hall  and  Trinity  Hall  to  the 
number  of  its  parishioners.  By  a  charter  con- 
firmed by  the  Parliament  of  1449,  the  splendid 
site  was  conveyed  to  the  Provost  and  Scholars, 
together  with  the  ground  beyond  this  river, 
now  the  college  gardens ;  ample  revenues  were 
granted  to  them;  and  the  Founder  bade  them 
take  possession  of  the  new  site,  erect  buildings 
upon  it,  and  flourish  there  'as  well  or  even 
better  than  they  and  their  predecessors  had 
done  on  the  site  originally  assigned  to  them.* 
The  buildings  of  the  extended  college  were 
148 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

commenced  by  the  laying  of  the  first  stone  of 
the  chapel,  on  St.  James'  Day  (July  25th),  1446. 
The  buildings  of  Eton  had  been  begun  just  five 
years  before,  July  3,  1441.  Neither  of  these 
colleges  was  completed  according  to  the  inten- 
tions of  the  Founder,  and  we  should  be  left  to 
conjecture  what  those  intentions  were  had  he 
not  fortunately  committed  to  writing  his  de- 
tailed scheme  for  both  in  a  document  called 
'  The  Will  of  King  Henry  the  Sixth.'  The  term 
'  Will '  does  not  signify  a  testament,  but  an  ex- 
pression of  his  deliberate  purpose  with  regard 
to  the  arrangement  of  the  buildings,  the  pay- 
ment of  the  principal  workmen,  and  the  assign- 
ment of  funds  to  defray  the  expense.  This 
document,  signed  in  March  1448,  is  on  several 
grounds  one  of  the  most  remarkable  works  in 
the  English  language.  The  design  which  it 
describes  is  a  marvellous  union  of  beauty  and 
convenience,  and  the  measurements  of  the 
different  parts  are  set  down  so  clearly  and  so 
exactly  that  a  ground-plan  can  without  much 
difficulty  be  constructed  from  them ;  minute 
details  of  workmen  and  their  wages  are  care- 
fully entered  into ;  ample  funds  are  provided 
out  of  the  revenues  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster 

149 


CAMBRIDGE 

and  vested  in  the  hands  of  trustees ;  future 
contingencies  are  guarded  against  by  e very- 
precaution  that  legal  ingenuity  could  invent ; 
and,  lastly,  in  a  strain  of  earnest  eloquence, 
that  becomes  almost  tragic  when  we  consider 
the  fate  that  befell  the  writer  and  his  works 
within  a  few  years,  he  exhorts  those  to  whom 
these  trusts  are  committed  to  discharge  them 
in  all  points  faithfully. 

"We  will  describe  briefly  the  design  for  King's, 
premising  that  that  for  Eton  bears  a  general 
resemblance  to  it,  sufficiently  close  to  prove 
that  both  were  derived  from  a  common  original 
— Wykeham's  College  at  Winchester.  The  de- 
sign for  Eton  being  executed  more  immediately 
under  the  King's  own  supervision,  was  con- 
stantly altered,  and,  had  it  ever  been  completed, 
would  probably  have  resulted  in  something  very 
different  from  what  we  find  described  in  the 
Will.  That  for  King's,  on  the  contrary,  so  far 
as  it  was  carried  out,  is  exactly  what  we  find 
described  therein,  except  in  some  minute  par- 
ticulars, which  may  be  neglected  in  a  general 
description.  The  chapel,  288  feet  long  by  40  feet 
broad,  was  to  form  the  north  side  of  the  quad- 
rangle, of  which  the  east  and  west  sides  were 

150 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

to  'close  vnto  bothe  endes  of  the  chirche' — 
that  is,  were  to  abut  against  the  chapel,  which 
would,  therefore,  have  been  an  integral  part  of 
the  quadrangle,  instead  of  standing  apart,  as  it 
now  does,  like  a  model  on  a  board.  This  quad- 
rangle would  have  measured  238  feet  from  east 
to  west,  by  230  feet  from  north  to  south.  The 
gate  of  entrance  would  have  been  in  the 
same  position  as  at  present,  in  the  middle  of 
the  east  side;  that  side  and  the  south  side 
would  have  been  occupied  by  chambers;  the 
west  side  by  a  lecture-room,  with  a  library  over 
it,  and  by  the  buttery  and  hall.  The  Provost's 
lodge  would  have  been  at  the  intersection  of 
the  west  and  south  sides.  The  Provost's  offices 
and  the  college  kitchen  were  behind  the  hall. 
At  the  west  end  of  the  chapel — separated  from 
it  in  all  probability  by  an  interval  such  as 
exists  at  New  College,  Oxford,  and  as  was 
directed  in  the  Will  for  Eton,  'for  to  sette  in 
certain  trees  and  floures  behoueful  and  con- 
uenient  for  the  service  of  the  chirche' — there 
was  to  be  a  burial-ground,  measuring  175  feet 
from  north  to  south,  by  200  feet  from  east  to 
west.  It  was  to  be  surrounded  by  a  cloister, 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  west  side  there  was 

151 


CAMBRIDGE 

to  be  a  belfry,  120  feet  high  to  the  corbel-table, 
with  four  angle-turrets,  crowned  with  pinnacles. 
Access  to  the  grounds  beyond  the  river  was 
provided  by  a  bridge,  in  the  centre  of  the 
western  side  of  the  site;  and  all  the  circuit 
of  the  college  was  to  be  defended  by  a  high 
wall,  with  towers  at  intervals.  The  approach 
to  the  bridge  was  also  to  be  guarded  by  a 
tower ;  there  was  to  be  a  second  gateway  in  the 
wall  next  the  street,  crowned  with  turrets ;  a 
tower  was  to  give  access  to  the  hall ;  and  there 
were  to  be  staircase-towers  in  the  inside  of  the 
court.  Thus  the  four  turrets  of  the  chapel, 
which  have  often  been  criticised  for  their  exact 
uniformity,  would  only  have  been  a  portion  of 
a  forest  of  spires,  small  and  great,  rising  above 
the  roofs;  and  they  were  all  so  arranged  that, 
when  viewed  from  a  distance,  they  would  not 
have  interfered  with  one  another,  but  each 
would  have  had  its  own  proper  and  befitting 
position.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  Will  the 
King  names  fourteen  persons,  into  whose  charge 
he  commits  the  various  trusts  before  rehearsed. 
They  were  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and 
St.  Asaph,  the  Earls  of  Devon,  Salisbury, 
Northumberland,    and    Shrewsbury,    the    Lord 

152 


south  porch  of 
king's  college 

CHAI'EL. 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

Clifford,  the  Lord  Wells,  and  the  Provosts  of 
Eton  and  King's,  with  others  of  less  note. 
Of  these  the  first  named,  William  Waynflete, 
whom  Henry  had  promoted  from  the  Master- 
ship of  Winchester  to  be  first  Head  Master, 
then  Provost,  of  Eton,  was  the  one  whom  he 
evidently  regarded  as  a  personal  friend,  whom 
he  could  trust  implicitly  to  carry  out  his  wishes. 
He  thus  commits  the  supreme  direction  of  the 
whole  scheme  to  him  : 

'  Furthermore,  for  the  final  perfourmying  of  my 
said  wil  to  be  put  effectuelly  in  execucion,  I,  con- 
siderying  the  grete  discrecion  of  the  seide  worshep- 
ful  fader  in  god  William  nowe  Bisshop  of  Wyn- 
chestre,  his  high  trouglit  and  feruent  zele  which 
at  alle  tymes  lie  hath  hadde  and  hath  vnto  my 
weel,  And  whiche  I  haue  founde  and  proued  in 
hym,  and  for  the  grete  and  hool  confidence  whiche 
I  haue  vnto  hym  for  thoo  causes  wol  that  he  not 
oonly  as  Surueour,  but  also  as  executor  and  director 
of  my  seid  wil,  be  priuee  vnto  alle  and  euery  execu- 
cion of  the  perfourmyng  of  my  same  wil,  and  that 
his  consente  in  any  wise  be  hadde  therto. ' 

Finally,  he  appeals  to  his  trustees  generally 
by  the  most  solemn  of  all  considerations  : 

*  And  that  this  my  seid  wil  in  euery  poynt  before 
reherced  may  the  more  effectually  be  executed  .1. 
U  153 


CAMBRIDGE 

not  oonly  pray  and  desire  but  also  exorte  in  Crist 
require  and  charge  alle  and  euery  of  my  seid  feffees 
myn  Executours  and  Surueour  or  Surueours  in  the 
vertue  of  the  aspercion  of  Christes  blessed  blode 
and  of  his  peyneful  passion  that  they  hauyng  god 
and  myne  entent  oonly  before  their  eyen,  not  let- 
tyng  for  drede  or  fauour  of  any  persoune  lyuing  of 
what  estat  degree  or  condicion  that  he  be  truly 
feithfully  and  diligently  execute  my  same  wil,  and 
euery  part  thereof,  as  they  wol  answere  before  the 
blessed  and  dredeful  visage  of  our  Lord  Jhesu  in 
his  most  fereful  and  last  dome,  when  euery  man 
shal  most  streitly  be  examined  and  demed  after  his 
demeritees. 

'  And  furthermore,  for  the  more  sure  accomplisshe- 
ment  of  this  my  said  wil  I  in  the  most  entier  and 
feruent  wise  pray  my  said  heirs  and  successours, 
and  euery  of  theym,  that  they  shewe  them  self 
wel-willyng  feitliful  and  tender  lovers  of  my  desire 
in  this  behalf;  And  in  the  bowelles  of  Christ  our 
alder  iuste  and  streit  Juge,  exorte  theym  to  re- 
member the  terrible  comminations  and  full  fearful 
imprecations  of  holy  scripture  agayns  the  brekers 
of  the  lawe  of  god,  and  the  letters  of  goode  and 
holy  werkes,  the  which  imprecations  Holy  Scripture 
reherseth  in  the  booke  of  Deuteronomy,  saying,  "// 
thou  tvilt  not  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy 
God,  all  these  curses  shall  come  upon  thee  and  over- 
take thee :  cursed  shall  thou  he  in  the  city,  and  cursed 
slutlt  thou  be  in  the  field :  cursed  shall  thou  he  when 

154 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

thou  coniest  in,  and  cursed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou 
goest  out.  The  Lord  shall  send  upon  thee  cursing, 
vexation,  and  rebuke,  in  all  that  thou  settest  thine 
hand  unto  for  to  do,  until  thou  be  destroyed,  and 
xLntil  thou  perish  quickly,  because  of  the  tvickedness 
of  thy  doings  whereby  thou  hast  forsaken  me."' 

As  is  generally  the  case  with  medieval  build- 
ings, the  designer  of  this  elaborate  piece  of 
collegiate  architecture  is  unknown.  In  the  case 
of  Eton,  even  tradition  is  silent;  in  the  case  of 
King's,  it  names  Nicholas  Close,  one  of  the 
original  Fellows,  who  received  a  grant  of  arms 
from  the  King  for  the  pains  he  had  taken  in 
promoting  the  royal  buildings,  and  who  was 
certainly  overseer  of  the  works  at  their  com- 
mencement. There  is,  however,  no  proof  that 
he  furnished  the  design.  One  point  alone 
seems  certain,  namely,  that  both  colleges  were 
undoubtedly  planned  by  the  same  person ;  and, 
considering  how  anxiously  the  King  himself 
watched  over  the  progress  of  Eton,  changing 
the  design  repeatedly,  and  noting  in  his  own 
hand  the  altered  dimensions  that  he  wished  to 
introduce,  it  is  surely  not  unnatural  to  suppose 
that  he  may  himself  have  planned  the  whole 
scheme,   for   the   realisation  of   which   he  dis- 

155 


CAMBRIDGE 

played  an  anxiety  more  keen  than  he  is  likely 
to  have  felt  for  any  plan  devised  by  the  in- 
genuity of  others.  In  the  arrangement  of  de- 
tails, however,  he  was  doubtless  assisted.  At 
Eton  we  find  that  his  friend,  the  Marquis  of 
Suffolk,  not  only  supervised  the  expenditure, 
but  was  consulted  from  time  to  time  on  points 
referred  to  him  by  the  clerk  of  the  works, 
among  others  on  the  design  of  the  hall.  Wayn- 
flete  again,  who,  from  the  terms  in  which  he  is 
spoken  of  in  the  Will,  unquestionably  enjoyed 
his  entire  confidence,  may  well  have  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  originating  the  whole  scheme. 
He  was  a  practical  architect,  as  we  see  from  his 
own  foundation,  Magdalene  College,  Oxford ; 
and  his  connection  with  Winchester  may  account 
for  the  general  resemblance  already  noticed  be- 
tween the  design  of  Henry  the  Sixth  and  that 
of  Wykeham. 

There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  the 
first  stone  of  the  chapel  was  laid  by  King 
Henry  in  person,  after  which  it  proceeded 
slowly  and  haltingly,  for  the  disasters  that 
befell  prevented  the  regular  payment  of  the 
money  assigned  for  the  works  even  from  the 
first,   down    to   his   deposition.     The  beautiful 

156 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

white  magnesian  limestone  which  marks  the 
limit  of  the  work  done  in  his  reign,  is  another 
proof  of  the  close  connection  that  he  wished 
to  maintain  between  King's  and  Eton.  It  was 
obtained  from  a  quarry  at  Hudleston,  near 
Sherburne,  in  Yorkshire,  which  he  had  acquired 
from  the  owner,  Henry  Vavasour,  for  the  joint 
use  of  the  two  foundations.  The  stone  was 
quarried  at  their  joint  expense,  and  then  divided 
between  them.  There  is  evidence,  that  for  the 
last  two  years  or  more  before  King  Henry's 
deposition  the  works  must  have  been  almost,  if 
not  quite,  stopped ;  and  in  1460  money  was 
actually  sent  from  Cambridge  to  him  at  North- 
ampton, just  a  week  before  the  disastrous  battle 
at  which  he  was  taken  prisoner.  The  inmates 
of  the  college  must  have  been  profoundly  dis- 
couraged; their  anxiety  is  shown,  more  elo- 
quently than  by  mere  words,  by  the  numerous 
payments  to  servants  sent  to  London,  to  New- 
market, to  Royston,  to  Barkway,  to  obtain  in- 
telligence (pro  novis  audiendis).  Anything  was 
better  than  the  state  of  wretched  uncertainty 
they  were  in.  At  last,  when  the  news  of  his 
death  came,  it  was  said  that  the  workmen,  who 
were  sawing  a  block  of  limestone,  threw  down 

157 


CAMBRIDGE 

their  tools,  believing  that  the  works  were  at 
an  end,  and  left  it  half  sawn  in  two.  The  story 
may  have  been  invented  afterwards  to  account 
for  the  presence  of  the  stone,  which  lay  upon 
the  college  green  until  1724,  when  it  was  used 
as  the  foundation-stone  of  the  Fellows'  Build- 
ing ;  but  it  was  certainly  believed  at  that  time, 
for  it  is  alluded  to  in  the  inscription  then  en- 
graved upon  it.  After  this  catastrophe,  though 
the  works  did  not  cease  entirely,  as  is  com- 
monly supposed,  they  made  but  little  progress 
until  near  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Fourth,  who  was  then  moved  to  give  one 
thousand  marks,  probably  through  the  inter- 
cession of  the  Provost,  Walter  Field,  who  had 
been  one  of  his  chaplains.  The  sum  obtained, 
however,  was  too  small  to  accomplish  much; 
nor  could  the  £700  which  Richard  the  Third 
contributed  have  effected  much  more.  After 
his  death  the  building  ceased  entirely  for 
twenty-four  years,  a  break  in  the  work  with 
which  the  first  period  of  the  construction  of 
the  chapel  ends. 


158 


VII 

king's  college  (continiied) 

A  FEW  months  before  the  end  of  his  life,  King 
Henry  vii.  determined  to  complete  the  building 
with  which  the  name  of  his  uncle  was  so  inti- 
mately associated.  It  had  been  accepted,  as  we 
have  seen,  even  by  Edward  iv.  and  Richard  iii. 
as  a  royal  possession  which  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land were  bound  to  finish.  If  they  had  been 
interested  in  it,  much  more  ought  he  to  be  so, 
of  whom  Henry  of  Lancaster  had  foretold  that 
he  would  be  his  successor,  a  tradition  which 
Shakespeare  has  thus  commemorated : 

•  King  Henry.— My  Lord  of  Somerset,  what  youth  is  that 
Of  whom  you  seem  to  have  so  tender  care  ? 
Somerset.— My  liege,  it  is  young  Henry,  Earl  of  Rich- 
mond. 
King  Henry  .—Come  hither,  England's  hope.    [Lays  his 
hand  on  his  head,^ 

If  secret  powers 
Suggest  but  truth  to  my  divining  thoughts^ 

159 


CAMBRIDGE 

This  pretty  lad  will  prove  our  country's  bliss. 
His  looks  are  full  of  peaceful  majesty, 
His  head  by  nature  framed  to  wear  a  crown, 
His  hand  to  wield  a  sceptre,  and  himself 
Likely  in  time  to  bless  a  regal  throne. 
Make  much  of  him,  my  lords,  for  this  is  he 
Must  help  you  more  than  you  are  hurt  by  me.' 

Henry  Tudor  'loved  to  accumulate  treasure,' 
says  his  biographer;  but  to  do  honour  to  his 
departed  uncle,  whose  crown  he  had  inherited, 
he  was  prepared  to  lay  aside  his  accustomed 
penuriousness.  Policy,  as  well  as  superstition, 
probably  influenced  him  in  this.  Popular  feel- 
ing throughout  England  had  come  to  believe 
that  •  Henry's  holy  shade '  was  working  miracles. 
Pilgrims  had  crowded  to  the  grave  at  Chertsey, 
where  his  corpse  had  first  been  laid  before  its 
removal  to  Windsor  ;  and  his  image  on  the 
rood-screen  at  York  had  become  an  object  of 
passionate  adoration.  A  formal  recognition  of 
his  saintly  merits  by  a  regular  canonisation  had 
once  been  seriously  meditated.  It  was  to  be 
accompanied  by  a  removal  in  state  of  his 
remains  from  Windsor  to  Westminster,  there 
to  be  deposited  in  the  new  chapel.  The  Pope 
had  agreed  to  perform  his  part  in  the  ceremony ; 
but  at  the  last  moment  it  was  abandoned,  as 

160 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

Holinshed  would  have  us  believe,  on  account  of 
the  great  cost  it  would  have  entailed :  •  so  the 
king  left  off  his  suite  in  that  behalfe,  thinking 
better  to  save  his  monie  than  to  purchase  a 
holidaie  of  St.  Henri  with  so  great  a  price.'  But 
when  he  found  himself  stricken  with  a  mortal 
disease,  which  no  sacrifice  of  his  ill-gotten 
wealth  could  cure,  he  began  to  think  whether 
another  and  a  better  use  could  not  be  made  of 
it.  That  such  was  the  temper  of  his  mind  is 
evident  from  his  Will,  in  which  an  extravagance 
of  devotion  and  almsgiving  takes  precedence  of 
all  other  provisions.  After  brief  directions  for  his 
sepulchre  and  his  tomb,  he  directs  that  'forth- 
with and  immediately  after  our  decesse '  ten 
thousand  masses  shall  be  said  at  Westminster 
and  in  London  '  for  the  remission  of  oure  synnes, 
and  the  weale  of  our  Soule';  two  thousand 
pounds  are  to  be  distributed  in  alms  'betwix 
the  houre  of  oure  decesse,  and  th'  ende  of  the 
dale  of  our  Sepulture ' ;  all  debts  are  to  be  paid, 
and  all  wrongs  redressed ;  the  revenue  of  certain 
lands,  to  the  value  of  one  hundred  marks,  is  to 
be  expended  in  yearly  and  weekly  obits,  with 
tapers,  torches,  and  lights,  burning  '  continuelly 
and  perpetuelly,  while  the  world  shall  endure, 
X  161 


CAMBRIDGE 

about  our  Towmbe ' ;  hospitals  are  to  be  founded, 
'  for  as  much  as  we  inwardly  consideir,  that  the 
seven  workes  of  Charitie  and  Mercy  bee  most 
profitable,  due,  and  necessarie,  for  the  salvacion 
of  man's  soule ' ;  largess  is  to  be  given  to  cathedral 
chapters  and  religious  houses  ;  the  works  at 
Westminster  and  elsewhere  are  to  be  com- 
pleted; images  of  the  King  are  to  be  set  up  on 
the  shrines  of  the  Confessor  and  of  St.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury ;  and  lastly,  King  Henry  vi.  is  to 
be  royally  honoured  and  commemorated,  'for 
the  singular  trust  that  we  haue  to  the  praires 
of  our  said  Uncle.'  Eton  had  been  completed 
already  by  the  pious  care  of  Waynflete;  it  re- 
mained for  him  to  complete  the  sister  college  at 
Cambridge,  *  that  thereby  shuld  not  be  onely  a 
notable  acte  and  a  meritorious  werke  perfited, 
which  else  were  like  to  grow  to  desolacion  and 
never  to  have  ben  done  and  accomplisshed,  but 
also  diuine  seruice  there  hereafter  be  mayn- 
tened  and  supported  to  thonour  and  laude  of 
Almighty  God,  thencrese  of  cunnyng  and 
doctrine  of  his  laws  in  edifyng  and  encrese  of 
our  faithe.'  Moreover,  King  Henry  the  Seventh 
had  had  ample  opportunities  of  seeing  with  his 
own  eyes  the  sad  condition  of  the  chapel,  for  in 

162 


J     c 
o     > 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

the  course  of  his  reign  he  had  visited  Cambridge 
five  times.  The  last  occasion  was  on  the  eve 
of  St.  George's  Day,  April  22,  1506,  on  his  way 
to  the  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Walsingham.  He 
was  received  with  all  the  quaint  solemnities 
usual  at  that  period,  the  University  and  the 
religious  orders  attending  him  to  Queens' 
College,  where  he  stayed.  Having  rested  awhile, 
he  *  did  on  his  Gowne  and  Mantell  of  the  Gartier,' 
and,  accompanied  by  the  Knights  of  the  Order, 
proceeded  to  King's  College  Chapel,  which  had 
been  decorated  for  the  occasion  with  paper 
scutcheons  of  the  knights'  companions  arms. 
There  he  kept  the  eve  of  the  festival,  and  the 
festival  itself,  with  the  usual  ceremonies.  This 
chapel  must  have  been  the  old  chapel,  which 
stood  between  the  present  one  and  the  Old 
Court ;  but,  as  he  proceeded  to  it  from  Queens' 
College,  he  must  have  passed  so  close  to  the  un- 
finished chapel,  that  he  could  not  fail  to  be 
struck  by  its  incompleteness.  At  that  time  the 
east  end  alone  had  been  roofed  in,  while  the 
whole  ante-chapel  was  probably  a  grass-grown 
enclosure,  with  walls  not  more  than  eight  feet 
high. 

The  Will  was  signed  31  March  1509 ;  but  work 
163 


CAMBRIDGE 

had  been  resumed  in  May  1508,  with  a  staff  of 
at  least  140  workmen  of  different  trades,  paid 
for  by  the  King;  and  a  week  before  the  Will 
was  signed  he  had  conveyed  to  the  college 
£5000,  with  directions  to  his  executors  to  supply 
such  further  sums  *  as  shall  suffice  for  the  perfite 
finisshing  and  perf  ourminge  of  the  same  werkes.' 
In  consequence  they  contributed  a  second  sum 
of  £5000  in  1512.  The  first  of  these  two  sums 
was  probably  expended  in  finishing  the  walls ; 
the  second  in  constructing  a  great  vault,  a 
glorious  specimen  of  the  fan-vaulting  then  in 
fashion,  and  in  raising  the  battlements  and 
pinnacles.  The  stonework  was  probably  finished 
by  July  1515.  Much,  however,  still  remained  to 
be  done;  and  the  college  humbly  solicited 
Henry  viii.  to  glaze  the  windows — the  scheme 
for  which,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  had  been 
already  sanctioned  by  his  father — and  to  furnish 
stalls  and  pavement.  Ten  years  elapsed  before 
he  found  time  (or  money)  to  undertake  so  im- 
portant a  task,  and  it  was  not  until  1526  that 
contracts  for  the  windows  were  signed.  These 
documents  prove  that  these  splendid  pictures  in 
glass  were  all  executed  by  Englishmen  except 
four,  the  patterns  for  which  were  to  be  given  by 

164 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

the  Englishmen  to  Flemings  resident  in  England. 
They  had  been  begun  by  Barnard  Flower,  the 
King's  glazier,  about  1515,  but  he  dying  before 
he  had  finished  more  than  four  windows,  and 
possibly  the  armorial  bearings  in  the  tracery, 
the  rest  were  intrusted  to  Galyon  Hoone, 
Richard  Bownde,  Thomas  Reve,  James  Nichol- 
son (Englishmen);  Francis  Williamson,  and 
Symon  Symondes  (Flemings)  ;  all  described 
simply  as  'glasyers,'  resident  in  London  or 
Southwark.  The  designs  were  to  be  approved 
by  three  persons  selected  by  the  College:  Dr. 
Robert  Hacomblen,  the  Provost,  William  Hol- 
gylle,  Master  of  the  Savoy,  and  Thomas  Larke, 
Archdeacon  of  Norwich.  It  was  covenanted 
that  the  entire  work  should  be  finished  by  May 
1531.  The  west  window  was  included  in  one  of 
the  contracts;  but  there  is  not  the  slightest 
fragment  of  evidence  that  it  was  ever  executed. 
It  is  often  alluded  to  in  the  accounts,  and  repairs 
to  it  are  often  necessary.  They  are,  however, 
always  executed  in  white  glass.  Again,  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  suppose  that  so  large  a 
surface  of  coloured  glass,  had  it  ever  been 
painted,  could  have  perished  completely.  Some 
fragments  of  it  would  have  remained,  either  in 

165 


CAMBRIDGE 

the  tracery  or  in  some  other  part  of  the  chapel. 
It  has  been  suggested  sometimes  that  in  the 
four  windows  next  to  it,  on  the  north  and  south 
sides,  which  are  now  in  a  sad  state  of  ruin  and 
confusion,  we  have  the  displaced  glass  of  the 
west  window.  This  hypothesis  is  wholly  inad- 
missible. Those  windows  form  part  of  the 
regular  series ;  and  their  present  condition  is 
due,  in  some  degree,  to  defective  painting 
originally,  but  far  more  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  been  mended  by  ignorant  persons,  who 
have  put  the  component  pieces  together  in- 
accurately. 

As  these  windows  are  the  most  important 
specimens  of  English  glass-painting  that  have 
been  preserved,  a  brief  notice  of  the  arrange- 
ment and  treatment  of  the  subjects  depicted  in 
them  must  now  be  given.  No  precise  distribu- 
tion of  the  subjects  is  mentioned  in  the  con- 
tracts. It  is  merely  agreed  that  the  windows 
are  to  be  filled  '  with  good,  clene,  sure,  and 
perfyte  glass  and  Oryent  Colours  and  Imagery 
of  the  Story  of  the  olde  lawe  and  the  newe  la  we 
after  the  fourme,  maner,  goodeness,  curyousytie, 
and  clenelynes  in  euery  poynt  of  the  glasse 
wyndowes  of  the  kynges  newe  Chapell  at  West- 

166 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

mynster ;  And  also  accordyngly  and  after  such 
maner  as  oon  Barnard  Flower  glasyer  late 
deceessed  by  indenture  stode  bounde  to  doo.' 
They  were,  therefore,  to  be,  in  some  degree,  a 
reproduction  of  the  windows  in  Henry  the 
Seventh's  Chapel  at  Westminster ;  and,  also,  a 
continuation  of  the  series  commenced  fifteen 
years  before  by  Barnard  Flower,  and  interrupted 
by  his  death.  Unfortunately,  the  contract  made 
with  Flower  is  lost,  and  the  windows  at  West- 
minster have  been  destroyed,  so  that  we  are 
without  information  as  to  the  two  series  that 
were  to  be  followed. 

Of  the  twenty-six  windows,  twenty-five  are 
filled  with  ancient  glass,  of  which  the  east 
window,  as  usual,  contains  the  Crucifixion.  In 
the  remainder  '  the  story  of  the  olde  and  newe 
lawe '  is  depicted  in  the  following  manner.  Each 
window  contains  five  lights,  divided  by  a  tran- 
som. The  central  light  contains  four  figures, 
called  '  Messengers  ' — two  above  and  two  below 
the  transom — who  carry  scrolls  or  tablets,  or 
some  device  on  which  a  text  may  be  inscribed 
descriptive  of  the  pictures  in  the  lights  to  the 
right  and  left  of  them.  There  are  four  pictures 
to  each  window.    Those  in  the  lower  tier  exhibit, 

167 


CAMBRIDGE 

with  one  or  two  exceptions,  scenes  taken  out  of 
the  New  Testament.  They  proceed  in  regular 
sequence,  commencing  at  the  north-west  corner 
with  the  'Birth  of  the  Virgin.'  This  and  the 
window  next  to  it  are  occupied  with  her  legen- 
dary history ;  the  third  window  contains  the 
'  Annunciation'  and  the  *  Nativity';  the  fourth  the 
'  Circumcision '  and  the  '  Adoration  of  the  Magi ' ; 
the  fifth  the  *  Purification '  and  the  '  Flight  into 
Egypt';  the  sixth  the  'Idols  of  Egypt  falling  down 
before  the  Infant  Jesus '  and  the '  Massacre  of  the 
Innocents ' ;  the  seventh  and  following  windows 
the  principal  events  in  the  life  of  Christ  before 
the  Crucifixion.  On  the  south  side  at  the  east 
end  we  find  the  'Entombment,' the  'Resurrection,' 
and  the  other  events  recorded  in  the  Gospels, 
ending  with  the '  Ascension '  and  the  '  Descent  of 
the  Holy  Spirit '  in  the  sixth  window.  These  are 
succeeded  by  the  principal  scenes  in  the  lives 
of  St.  John,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Paul,  as  recorded 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In  the  last  two 
windows  the  series  resumes  the  legendary 
history  of  the  Virgin,  and  ends  with  her  As- 
sumption and  Coronation.  The  upper  series 
consists  of  pictures  out  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  Apocrypha,  or  legendary  history,  selected 

168 


INTERIOR    OK 
king's  COI.LEC.E 
CHAl'EL. 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

on  account  of  their  supposed  parallelism  with 
those  of  the  former  series ;  but  occasionally  this 
system  is  interrupted,  and  the  upper  lights  con- 
tinue the  story  exhibited  in  the  lower,  as  in  the 
history  of  the  Virgin,  and  the  scenes  from  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

A  bare  enumeration  of  the  subjects,  however, 
can  give  but  a  poor  idea  of  these  glorious  paint- 
ings. What  first  arrests  the  attention  is  the 
singularly  happy  blending  of  colours,  produced 
by  a  most  ingenious  juxtaposition  of  pure  tints. 
The  half-tones,  so  dear  to  the  present  genera- 
tion, were  fortunately  unknown  in  the  days 
when  they  were  set  up.  Thus,  though  there  is 
a  profusion  of  brilliant  scarlet,  and  light  blue, 
and  golden  yellow,  there  is  no  gaudiness.  Again, 
all  the  glass  admits  light,  without  let  or  hin- 
drance, the  shading  being  laid  on  with  sparing 
hand,  so  that  the  greatest  amount  of  brilliancy 
is  insured.  This  is  further  enhanced  by  a  very 
copious  use  of  white,  or  slightly  yellow,  glass. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  a  grand 
effect  of  colour  is  all  that  has  been  aimed  at. 
The  pictures  bear  a  close  study  as  works  of  art. 
The  figures  are  rather  larger  than  life,  and 
boldly  drawn,  so  as  to  be  well  seen  from  a  great 
Y  169 


CAMBRIDGE 

distance ;  but  the  faces  are  full  of  expression 
and  individuality,  and  each  scene  is  beautiful  as 
a  composition.  They  would  well  bear  reduction 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  an  easel  picture. 
As  examples  of  special  excellence  may  be  cited 
the  'Manna  in  the  Wilderness,'  where  the  woman, 
seated  with  her  starving  child  in  her  lap,  offers 
a  wonderful  picture  of  despair  ;  the  '  Entry  into 
Jerusalem ' ;  the  '  Maries  at  the  Tomb  of  Christ ' ; 
the  *  Descent  into  Hell ' ;  and  the  '  Resurrection.' 
Again,  what  richness  of  imagination  is  shown  in 
the  forms  of  angels  and  demons !  How  beauti- 
ful are  the  rosy  plumes  of  the  angel  that  wit- 
nesses the  Baptism  of  Christ;  how  weird  and 
fantastic  is  the  demon  that  mocks  at  the  suffer- 
ings of  Job,  or  the  doomed  spirit  that  glares  at 
the  Saviour,  who  has  broken  into  his  domain, 
and  is  standing  on  the  gates  of  Hell ! 

Careful  examination  shows  that  these  paint- 
ings bear  evidence  of  execution  by  various 
hands,  as  might  indeed  be  expected  from  the 
number  of  persons  who  were  parties  to  the 
contracts.  Moreover,  they  are  of  unequal 
merit,  not  merely  in  execution,  but  in  design. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that,  subject  to  the 
observance  of  a  certain  sequence,  the  treatment 

170 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

of  a  particular  scene  was  left  to  the  '  glaziers ' 
who  executed  it.  This  at  once  destroys  the 
tradition  that  the  designs  were  furnished  by- 
Albert  Diirer  or  Hans  Holbein.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  a  German  or  Flemish  influence  is 
discernible  in  some  of  the  subjects ;  but  that  is 
no  more  than  might  be  expected,  when  we  con- 
sider the  number  of  sets  of  pictures  illustrating 
the  Life  and  Passion  of  Christ  that  had  appeared 
in  Germany  and  Flanders  during  the  half- 
century  preceding  their  execution.  These,  of 
which  one  of  the  best  known  is  the  *  Mirror  of 
Human  Salvation'  (Speculum  humance  Sal- 
vationis),  usually  contained  illustrations  of  the 
life  of  Christ,  accompanied  by  scenes  out  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  not  unfrequently  preceded, 
as  here,  by  the  legendary  life  of  the  Virgin. 
Again,  a  resemblance  has  been  observed  between 
some  of  them  and  the  treatment  of  the  same 
subject  by  Raphael,  and  he  has  been  named  as 
the  designer.  Italian  influence,  however,  had 
already  been  felt  in  Flanders,  and  may  not  im- 
probably have  affected  England  also ;  for,  con- 
sidering the  frequent  intercourse  between  Eng- 
land and  Rome,  it  would  have  been  strange  if 
the  great  and  sudden  impulse  given  to  religious 

171 


CAMBRIDGE 

art  by  the  painter  whom  the  Pope  had  selected 
for  the  decoration  of  the  Vatican,  had  been 
without  its  effects  on  English  art  also. 

The  value  of  these  designs,  and  of  those  of  a 
smaller  and  far  inferior  series  at  Fairford,  in 
Gloucestershire,  as  indications  of  English  art, 
has  been  frequently  recognised.  Horace  Wal- 
pole  held  that  '  the  artists  who  executed  them 
(the  windows  at  King's  College)  would  figure  as 
considerable  painters  in  any  reign';  and  Vandyke 
•often  affirmed  to  Charles  i.  that  many  of  the 
figures  in  the  Fairford  windows  were  so  ex- 
quisitely done  that  they  could  be  exceeded  by 
no  pencil.'  Again,  in  answer  to  the  frequent 
observations  that  they  cannot  be  of  English 
work  because  artists  so  distinguished  would 
certainly  have  produced  other  works  of  equal 
merit,  it  may  be  urged  that  the  art  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  early  Renaissance  was  devoted 
almost  exclusively  to  the  decoration  of  churches, 
and  was  expended  upon  two  most  perishable 
materials — glass  and  plaster;  and  that  at  the 
Reformation  first,  and  during  the  Civil  War 
afterwards,  it  was  one  of  the  chief  objects  of 
the  Puritans  to  sweep  the  whole  of  that  art 
away.    Relics  of  it  are  occasionally  found  that 

172 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

testify  to  the  extent  and  the  excellence  of  it. 
When  the  frescoes  executed  at  Eton  in  Ed- 
ward iv.'s  reign  were  discovered  in  1847,  Mr. 
Street  'had  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  these 
paintings  are  the  finest  which  have  yet  been 
discovered  in  England;  more  artistic,  and  as 
full  of  religious  feeling  as  any,  and  most  in- 
teresting as  having  most  probably  been  executed 
by  Florentine  artists,  who,  for  aught  we  know, 
may  have  been  the  pupils  of  the  Beato  Angelico, 
or  his  friends ;  as  they  were  the  contemporaries 
of  Francia,  of  Perugino,  and  of  Ghirlandaio.' 
It  now  turns  out,  however,  that  they  were  the 
work  of  a  man  with  the  plainest  of  plain  Eng- 
lish names — William  Baker.  Again,  as  regards 
glass,  the  whole  series  of  windows  at  West- 
minster, from  which  those  at  King's  were 
copied,  has  perished ;  the  windows  of  Great  St. 
Mary's,  in  Cambridge,  by  Nicholson,  and  those 
of  St.  Mary  Overey,  in  Southwark,  by  Galyon 
Hoone,  both  glaziers  employed  here,  have  equally 
disappeared.  There  is  hardly  any  cathedral,  or 
indeed  any  large  church,  which  has  not  the  same 
story  of  devastation  to  tell.  That  these  windows 
themselves  should  have  been  saved  is  a  marvel ; 
and  how  it  came  to  pass  is  not  now  exactly 

173 


CAMBRIDGE 

known.  The  story  that  they  were  taken  out 
and  hidden,  or  as  one  version  of  it  says,  buried, 
may  be  dismissed  as  an  idle  fabrication.  More 
likely  the  Puritan  sentiments  of  the  then  Pro- 
vost, Dr.  Whichcote,  were  regarded  with  such 
favour  by  the  Earl  of  Manchester  during  his 
occupation  of  Cambridge,  that  he  interfered  to 
save  the  chapel  and  the  college  from  molesta- 
tion. For  there  is  ample  evidence  in  the  account- 
books  to  prove  that  the  Society  was  not  in  any 
way  interfered  with ;  and  though  soldiers  were 
quartered  in  the  college,  they  do  not  appear  to 
have  committed  any  damage  other  than  the 
most  trivial.  The  detriment  that  the  glass  has 
suffered  is  due  to  ignorant  glaziers  by  whom  it 
was  repaired  on  many  occasions  during  the  last 
century ;  and  so  frequent  and  so  thorough  have 
been  those  repairs,  that  it  is  a  wonder,  not  that 
the  damage  is  so  great,  but  that  anything  has 
been  preserved.  The  series,  left  unfinished,  as 
we  have  shown,  was  worthily  completed  in  1879. 
In  that  year  the  west  window  was  filled  with  a 
noble  representation  of  the  '  Last  Judgment,' 
executed  by  Messrs.  Clayton  and  Bell,  and  given 
by  Francis  Edmund  Stacey,  formerly  Fellow. 
The  windows  having  been  completed,  the 
174 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

woodwork  was  undertaken.  The  organ-screen, 
or,  as  it  was  called  down  to  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  *  rood-loft,'  and  the 
stalls,  but  without  the  canopies,  were  set  up 
between  1531  and  1535,  as  is  proved  by  the  oc- 
currence of  the  initials  of  Anne  Boleyn,  entwined 
with  those  of  the  king,  in  many  places  upon 
them.  The  chapel  was  probably  first  used  for 
service  in  1536,  just  ninety  years  after  the  first 
stone  had  been  laid. 

Many  changes  had  been  introduced  into  the 
fabric  during  that  long  period;  the  simple 
massiveness  of  the  Founder's  work,  which  he 
desired  should  '  procede  in  large  fourme,  clene 
and  substantial,  laying  a  parte  superfluite  of  to 
grete  curious  werkes  of  entaille  and  besy  mold- 
ing,' is  in  strong  contrast  with  the  obtrusive 
heraldry  that  marks  the  portion  constructed  by 
Henry  vii.  and  his  executors.  There,  and  in 
the  glass  above,  his  right  to  the  crown,  and  the 
victory  by  which  he  won  it,  are  again  and  again 
commemorated,  with  a  frequency  of  repetition 
that  seems  to  betray  the  consciousness  of  usurp- 
ation. The  dragon  of  Cadwallader,  •  the  dragon 
of  the  great  Pendragonship,'  and  the  greyhound 
of  Cecilia  Neville,  wife  of    Richard,  Duke    of 

175 


CAMBRIDGE 

York,  support  the  arms  of  England  in  each 
'severy'  of  the  ante-chapel;  the  rose  and  the 
portcullis  (his  *  altera  securitas,'  as  he  termed  it, 
intimating  that  as  the  portcullis  was  the  second 
defence  of  a  fortress  when  the  gate  was  broken 
down,  so  he  had  a  second  claim  to  the  crown 
through  his  mother,  daughter  of  John  de  Beau- 
fort, whose  castle  in  Anjou  was  typified  by  this 
emblem  of  it)  cling  to  the  vaulting-shafts ;  the 
antelopes  of  the  Founder  are  associated  indeed 
with  his  own  magnificence,  but  only  upon  the 
external  buttresses  ;  while  the  red  rose  of  Lan- 
caster, the  hawthorn  bush,  and  the  crown  (allud- 
ing to  the  legend  of  the  recovery  of  it  on  Bos- 
worth  Field),  are  profusely  displayed  in  the 
tracery  of  the  windows.  In  his  son's  work  again 
the  influence  of  those  foreign  workmen  who 
were  so  largely  introduced  into  England  in  that 
century  becomes  apparent.  The  delicate  arab- 
esques in  low  relief,  and  the  classic  mouldings 
of  the  screen,  with  the  curious  absence  of  all 
religious  symbols  in  the  profuse  decoration  that 
covers  every  part  of  it,  are  Italian  rather  than 
English.  Unfortunately  all  record  of  its  con- 
struction has  been  lost ;  and  it  is  only  from 
internal  esridence    that  we    can    guess   at    the 

176 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

history  of  what  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  is 
the  most  beautiful  piece  of  woodwork  out  of 
Italy.  For  some  now  unknown  and  much-to- 
be-regretted  cause,  the  canopies  of  the  stalls 
were  not  completed  at  the  same  time.  It  is 
supposed  that  the  walls  were  hung  with  tapestry 
until  Thomas  Weaver  gave  the  somewhat  clumsy 
series  of  shields  of  arms,  with  the  pilasters  that 
separate  them,  in  1633.  The  present  canopies 
were  made  in  1678,  and  the  panel-work  beyond 
them  in  1679,  by  a  Cambridge  wood-carver, 
Cornelius  Austin.  The  canopies  are  poor  imita- 
tions of  the  older  work,  but  the  panels  are  excel- 
lent specimens  of  that  period,  and  the  artist  who 
executed  them  deserves  to  be  rescued  from 
oblivion.  The  present  reredos  was  put  up  by 
'the  ingenious  Mr.  Essex,'  at  the  end  of  the 
last  century  (1770-75).  It  is  an  attempt  to 
imitate  Gothic  work,  meritorious  in  intention 
rather  than  successful. 

This  is,  however,  the  only  serious  deformity 
in  the  chapel.  It  seems  as  though  the  respect 
in  which  the  Founder  was  held  protected  his 
works,  and  those  erected  in  his  name  by  his 
successors.  No  brush  of  paint  has  marred  the 
beauty  of  the  screen ;  and  even  Puritan  fanati- 
z  177 


CAMBRIDGE 

cism  spared  the  windows.  The  chapel  is  still, 
within  and  without,  the  noblest  structure  ever 
raised  for  collegiate  worship.  Well  might 
Wordsworth  exclaim : 

•  Tax  not  the  royal  saint  with  vain  expense, 
With  ill-matched  aims  the  Architect  who  planned, 
Albeit  labouring  for  a  scanty  band 
Of  white-robed  Scholars  only— this  immense 
And  glorious  work  of  fine  intelligence  1 
Give  all  thou  canst ;  high  Heaven  rejects  the  lore 
Of  nicely-calculated  less  or  more  ; 
So  deemed  the  man  who  fashioned  for  the  sense 
These  lofty  pillars,  spread  that  branching  roof, 
Self-poised,  and  scooped  into  ten  thousand  cells. 
Where  light  and  shade  repose,  where  music  dwells 
Lingering— and  wandering  on  as  loth  to  die ; 
Like  thoughts  whose  very  sweetness  yieldeth  proof 
That  they  were  born  for  immortality.' 

No  part  of  the  Founder's  design  except  the 
chapel  was  executed;  none,  indeed,  was  begun 
except  a  portion  of  the  eastern  range  of 
chambers.  When  Gibbs  was  employed  in  1724, 
he  designed  a  noble  quadrangle  in  the  classical 
style  then  in  fashion,  of  which,  however,  the 
west  side  alone  was  built ;  and  when  the  college 
was  again  enabled  to  resume  the  completion 
of  the  buildings  in  the  present  century,  they 
unfortunately  were  induced  to  employ  Wilkins. 
That    self-sufficient    and     ignorant     architect, 

178 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

though  he  affected  to  build  in  a  style  which 
he  dignified  by  the  name  of  Gothic,  discarded 
the  Founder's  plan,  obliterated  the  toothings 
which  then  remained  at  the  south-east  corner 
of  the  chapel,  and  built  towards  the  street  a 
screen  of  open  work,  with  a  gate  of  entrance  in 
the  centre,  consisting  of  a  crowd  of  tall  and 
meaningless  pinnacles  clustered  round  a  central 
mass.  It  used  to  be  appropriately  nicknamed 
*  The  decanter  and  wine-glasses.'  Yet,  so  strange 
are  the  fluctuations  in  popular  opinion,  that 
when  a  short  time  since  it  was  proposed  to  pull 
it  down,  and  erect  an  appropriate  building  on 
its  site,  a  great  cry  arose  in  its  favour.  It  was 
all  at  once  forgotten  that  by  its  erection  the 
last  hope  had  been  lost  of  seeing  the  chapel 
as  the  Founder  meant  it  should  be  seen,  and 
that  in  itself  it  was  mongrel  and  absurd.  The 
epithets '  gracious,'  'beautiful,'  and  many  another 
laudatory  term,  were  applied  to  it.  The  pro- 
posal was  whirled  away  in  a  tempest  of  indig- 
nation, and  the  screen  remains  for  the  present, 
though  let  us  hope  not  for  ever,  to  inform  one 
more  generation  at  least  how  devoid  of  real 
architectural  taste  was  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century.       Opposite    to    the    chapel 

179 


CAMBRIDGE 

Wilkins  erected  a  hall,  with  a  pretentious  roof 
of  plaster-work,  an  oriel  in  the  middle,  and  the 
meaningless  peculiarity  of  two  lanterns,  though, 
in  justice  to  him,  it  should  be  mentioned  that 
this  last  and  crowning  absurdity  was  forced 
upon  him  by  the  architects  Nash  and  Wyatt, 
whom  the  College  consulted,  and  compelled 
Wilkins  to  follow.  Into  the  original  use  of 
these  contrivances  they  did  not  care  to  inquire. 
Moreover,  though  any  building  at  King's  College 
must  to  a  certain  extent  commemorate  the 
Founder,  Wilkins  covered  his  work  with  em- 
blems that  commemorate  only  the  Tudors,  roses 
and  portcullises !  Lastly,  he  actually  persuaded 
the  College  to  allow  him  to  'gothicize'  Gibbs' 
beautiful  work,  for  which  remarkable  achieve- 
ment his  design  is  extant,  but  lack  of  funds 
fortunately  prevented  such  a  disaster. 

No  account  of  King's  College  would  be  com- 
plete without  some  narrative  of  the  famous 
entertainment  of  Queen  Elizabeth  there,  from 
Saturday,  August  5th,  to  Thursday,  August  10th, 
1564.  The  preparations  for  her  visit  had  been 
long  and  costly,  for  even  in  the  previous  year 
the  account  for  the  expenses  of  the  chapel  is 
mainly  filled  with  the  items  of  expenditure  for 

180 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

putting  up  the  wooden  theatre  on  which  a  play- 
was  to  be  represented  before  her.  She  herself 
resided  in  the  Provost's  Lodge,  which  then 
stood  between  the  east  end  of  the  chapel  and 
the  street;  some  of  her  ladies  were  lodged  in 
the  Fellows'  chambers,  and  her  maids  of  honour 
at  Caius  College.  Temporary  kitchens  were  set 
up  against  the  wall  that  divided  the  College 
from  St.  Austin's  hostel,  which  stood  nearly 
where  the  present  Hall  does.  The  south  vestry 
of  the  chapel  became  her  Council  Chamber,  the 
lower  hall  of  the  '  Provost's  Place,'  as  the  lodge 
was  termed,  her  Guard  Chamber,  and  the  room 
above  it  the  Presence  Chamber.  The  great 
officers  of  state  were  distributed  among  the 
other  colleges.  The  whole  University  was  pre- 
sent to  attend  her,  but  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand where  they  could  have  been  themselves 
accommodated,  so  vast  were  the  numbers  of 
her  retinue. 

There  are  several  accounts  of  her  visit,  which 
enter  minutely  into  the  tedious  ceremonies  in 
which  she  apparently  found  pleasure.  The 
following  description  of  what  occurred  is  ex- 
tracted from  Baker's  History  of  St.  Johns 
College : 

181 


CAMBRIDGE 

'The  queen  made  her  entrance  on  the  5th  of 
August,  by  Queens'  College,  where  a  large  gate 
was  hung  cross  the  street  from  that  college  to  the 
opposite  house  (now  the  printing-house),  guarded 
by  the  queen's  servants ;  the  two  lanes  near  King's 
College  were  likewise  barred  up  and  guarded  to 
keep  out  the  crowd.  All  the  passage  from  Queens' 
College  to  the  west  end  of  King's  College  chapel 
was  lined  with  scholars ;  the  doctors  stood  nearest 
the  chapel,  the  Vice-Chancellor,  with  the  senior 
doctor  and  orator,  upon  the  lowest  step.  Within 
the  chapel  (the  inner  part  whereof  Avas  hung  with 
tapestry  and  arras  of  the  queen's)  were  the  provost 
with  his  fellows  in  their  copes,  making  a  lane  where 
she  was  to  pass  towards  the  choir. 

'Her  majesty  entered  the  town  on  horseback  in 
a  gown  of  black  velvet  pinked,  a  caul  upon  her 
head  set  with  pearls  and  precious  stones,  with  a 
hat  spangled  with  gold  and  a  bush  of  feathers, 
attended  by  Garter  King-at-Arms  with  the  other 
great  officers  of  the  crown,  with  other  lords  and 
ladies  very  numerous,  the  Chancellor  riding  near 
her,  describing  the  order  and  degree  and  quality  of 
the  scholars ;  and  as  she  passed  the  scholars  loudly 
proclaimed  Vivat  Regina,  to  which  she  often  replied 
Gratias  ago. 

'As  soon  as  she  came  to  the  west  end  of  the 
chapel,  every  one  alighted  from  their  horses  except 
the  queen,  and  there  the  Chancellor  delivered 
up  the  staves,  and  the  public  orator,  Mr.  Master, 

182 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

kneeling  down,  made  an  oration,  wherein,  whilst  he 
enlarged  upon  her  majesty's  praises,  she  often  shook 
her  head  and  bit  her  lips,  and  sometimes  broke  out 
in  these  expressions,  non  est  Veritas  and  utinam ; 
but  when  he  praised  virginity,  she  commended  the 
orator  and  bid  him  continue  there.  In  conclusion, 
she  gave  him  a  just  encomium,  particularly  admir- 
ing his  memory,  as  he  well  deserved  that  could  go 
on  half  an  hour  without  pause  or  hesitating,  whilst 
the  queen's  horse  was  curvetting  under  her,  and 
she  herself  making  remarks  upon  the  different 
periods  of  his  speech.  Then  she  alighted  and 
advanced  towards  the  chapel  under  a  rich  canopy 
supported  by  four  of  the  principal  doctors,  when, 
after  Te  Deum,  begun  by  the  provost  and  sung  with 
the  organ,  and  after  evening  song  solemnly  had, 
etc.,  she  departed  to  her  lodging,  as  she  went 
thanking  God  that  had  sent  her  to  this  University, 
where  she  was  so  received  as  she  thought  she  could 
not  be  better. 

*  The  next  day  being  Sunday,  Dr.  Perne  in  his 
cope  preached  a  Latin  sermon  before  her  majesty 
in  King's  chapel  upon  this  text,  Oninis  anima 
subdita  sit,  etc.  About  the  midst  of  his  sermon 
she  sent  the  lord  Huusden  to  will  him  to  put  on 
his  cap,  which  he  did  unto  the  end ;  and  after  the 
sermon  was  over,  ere  he  could  get  out  of  the 
pulpit,  she  signified  to  him  by  the  Lord  Chamberlain, 
that  it  toas  the  first  that  ever  she  heard  in  Latin, 
and  she  thought  she  never  should  hear  a  better. 

183 


CAMBRIDGE 

'In  the  evening  she  heard  prayers  again  in  the 
chapel ;  and  this  day  had  been  well  spent,  had  not 
the  conclusion  been  very  different  from  the  rest  of 
the  day.  For  the  same  day  late  and  in  the  same 
place  one  of  Plautus'  comedies  (his  Aulularia)  was 
acted  before  her  by  torches  upon  a  stage  erected  in 
the  chapel  to  that  purpose,  which  she  stayed  out, 
though  it  held  in  acting  till  twelve  o'clock  at  night. 

'It  would  be  very  tedious  to  give  a  narrative 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  following  days,  and  of 
the  several  acts  and  disputations  held  before  her 
majesty.  It  was  philosophy  and  divinity  that  she 
attended  to  most,  and  was  best  pleased  with  these 
performances.  Mr.  Bing,  the  respondent  in  philo- 
sophy, acquitted  himself  well ;  and  it  was  then  ob- 
served that  as  Mr.  Cartwright,  one  of  his  opponents, 
expressed  more  heat,  so  Mr.  Preston  showed  better 
manners,  whom  the  queen  took  particular  notice  of 
and  dubbed  him  her  scholar.  But  no  man  acquitted 
himself  so  well  as  Mr.  Hutton,  the  respondent  in 
divinity,  to  the  satisfaction  and  admiration  of  all 
his  auditors ;  and  it  was  to  that  day  that  he  owed 
his  future  preferments.  The  queen  favoured  him 
in  her  looks,  her  words,  and  actions;  and  though 
Dr.  Feme,  one  of  his  opponents,  disputed  upon  him 
very  warmly  and  very  learnedly,  yet  he,  that  had 
given  such  content  whilst  he  preached  upon  Chnnis 
anima,  etc.,  lost  himself  in  the  opinion  of  the  queen 
for  having  touched  too  freely  upon  the  power  of 
excommunicating  princes,  though  it  were  only  by 

184 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

way  of  argument :  so  nice  a  thing  it  is  to  approach 
majesty  upon  any  pretence  or  at  any  distance, 
especially  where  majesty  is  at  its  full  height,  as  it 
then  was ! 

'  For,  however  it  may  have  been  since,  it  was 
then  in  this  manner  her  majesty  was  received  in 
our  congregations  or  assemblies.  At  her  entrance 
all  men  were  upon  the  knee,  nor  did  any  one  pre- 
sume to  rise  till  leave  was  given ;  and  after  they 
were  up,  no  one  presumed  to  sit  till  leave  was  given 
the  second  time  by  an  express  allowance.  The 
greatest  peer,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  the  greatest 
favourite,  Robert  Dudley,  addressed  her  majesty 
upon  the  knee,  as  they  then  did,  when  they  desired 
her  to  dismiss  the  University  with  an  oration.' 

The  accounts  printed  by  Nichols,  in  his  Pro- 
gresses of  Queen  Elizabeth,  contain  a  few  details 
that  are  worth  quoting,  in  addition  to  Baker's 
more  succinct  version  of  what  took  place.  When 
the  public  orator  praised  virginity,  she,  who 
prided  herself  on  being  the  Semper  Eadem,  ex- 
claimed, *  God's  blessing  of  thyne  heart ;  there 
continue.'  Again,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  dis- 
putations in  Great  Saint  Mary's  Church,  she 
made  a  Latin  oration,  in  which  she  distinctly 
promised  to  emulate  the  example  of  those 
princes,  her  ancestors,  the  monuments  of  whose 
piety  she  had  been  beholding : 
2a  185 


CAMBRIDGE 

'  My  age,  she  said,  '  is  not  yet  so  far  advanced ;  nor 
again  is  it  so  long  since  I  began  to  reign,  but  that 
before  I  pay  my  last  debt  to  nature  (if  cruel  Atropos 
do  not  too  soon  cut  the  thread  of  my  life),  I  may 
erect  some  passing  good  work.  And  from  this 
design,  so  long  as  I  have  any  life  left,  I  shall  never 
depart.  And  if  it  should  happen  that  I  must  die 
before  I  can  complete  this  thing;  yet  will  I  leave 
some  famous  monument  behind  me,  whereby  both 
my  memory  shall  be  renowned ;  and  I,  by  my 
example,  may  excite  others  to  the  like  worthy 
actions ;  and  also  make  you  all  more  ready  to 
pursue  your  studies.' 

When  she  spoke,  pleased  with  the  reception 
she  had  had,  which  she  candidly  admitted  was 
'  altogether  against  her  expectation,'  she  no 
doubt  sincerely  intended  to  found  a  new  college, 
or  further  to  endow  an  existing  one.  The  Uni- 
versity, however,  heard  no  more  of  the  royal 
benefactions. 

The  stage,  for  the  dramatic  entertainment, 
was  built  right  across  the  ante-chapel,  at  the 
west  end,  occupying  •  the  breadth  of  the  church 
from  the  one  side  to  the  other,  that  the  chappels 
might  serve  for  houses,'  that  is,  for  dressing- 
rooms  for  the  performers.  In  depth  it  was 
equal    to    the   breadth   of    two    chapels.      The 

18G 


KING'S  COLLEGE 

Queen  sat  on  the  south  side,  where  '  was  hanged 
a  cloth  of  state.'  The  ladies  and  gentlewomen 
of  the  court  stood  on  the  rood-loft,  or,  as 
we  call  it,  the  organ-screen ;  and  the  '  choyce 
officers  of  the  Court'  on  the  steps  under  the 
same.  The  guard  stood  on  the  ground  by  the 
stage  side,  each  man  holding  'in  his  hand  a 
torch-staff,  for  the  lights  of  the  play.'  The 
performers  were  '  certain  selected  persons, 
chosen  out  of  all  colleges  of  the  town,  at  the 
discretion  of  Mr.  Roger  Kelke,  D.D.' 


187 


VIII 

ST.  John's  college:  Christ's  college 

The  position  of  the  Hospital  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist  has  been  already  described.  Into 
the  history  of  that  foundation  it  would  be 
beside  our  present  purpose  to  enter.  It  will  be 
sufficient  to  mention  here  that  towards  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century  it  began  to  fall  into 
decay,  both  moral  and  material.  The  accusa- 
tions that  were  brought  against  so  many  re- 
ligious houses  at  that  time  were  preferred 
against  the  brethren.  Mr.  Thomas  Baker,  the 
historian  of  St.  John's  College,  tells  us  that 
*  they  were  certainly  very  dissolute  in  their  lives 
and  prodigal  in  their  expenses,  not  in  charity 
and  hospitality  which  they  were  obliged  to  by 
their  rule  and  order,  but  in  excess  and  riot, 
and  in  gratifying  their  own  sinful  lusts.'  A 
disorderly  house,  such  as  this,  must  have  been 

188 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

of  evil  example  in  the  University,  and  its  sup- 
pression was  only  a  question  of  time.  About 
1502,  Dr.  John  Fisher,  Master  of  Michael  House, 
who,  from  the  proximity  of  his  own  college  to 
the  hospital,  was  in  a  position  to  know,  per- 
haps only  too  well,  the  state  of  affairs  there, 
was  made  chaplain  and  confessor  to  the  Lady 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Richmond  and  Derby, 
mother  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh.  From 
the  vantage-ground  of  that  exalted  position  he 
set  himself  to  compass  the  conversion  of  the 
hospital  into  a  college  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Countess.  He  had  probably  no  difficulty 
in  interesting  his  mistress  in  the  scheme.  She 
had  visited  Cambridge  in  1505,  and  again  in 
1506,  on  which  occasions,  no  doubt,  she  had 
opportunities  of  learning  by  personal  inspection 
the  wants  of  the  University.  In  May  of  the 
former  year  she  had  refounded  the  ancient 
educational  establishment  called  God's  House  by 
the  title  of  Christ's  College,  and  endowed  it, 
besides  other  possessions,  with  the  Abbey  of 
St.  Mary  of  the  Meadows  (de  pj-atis),  at  Creyke, 
in  Norfolk.  She  had,  therefore,  herself  set  an 
example  of  utilising,  in  the  direction  of  edu- 
cation, religious  foundations  for  whose  special 

189 


CAMBRIDGE 

objects  the  necessity  was  no  longer  recognised. 
Holding  apart,  as  she  did,  by  a  wise  abstention, 
from  interference  in  affairs  of  state,  she  found 
a  congenial  occupation  in  the  patronage  of 
science  and  literature.  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  of  our  early  printers, 
styled  himself  '  Printer  unto  the  moost  excellent 
pryncesse  my  lady  the  kynge's  moder.'  She  had 
instituted  readerships  in  divinity  in  both  Uni- 
versities which  still  perpetuate  her  name,  and 
here  in  Cambridge  she  had  founded  a  preacher- 
ship  as  well.  Though,  as  has  been  well  pointed 
out,  *  her  outward  existence  belonged  to  the 
medieval  past,'  and  she  lived  almost  the  life  of 
a  nun  of  the  most  ascetic  order,  the  acuteness 
of  her  intelligence  led  her  to  perceive  that  a 
new  light  had  dawned  upon  the  horizon;  that 
changes  were  not  far  distant  in  which  any 
merely  conventual  foundations  would  perish, 
and  any  collegiate  institutions  would  as  cer- 
tainly survive.  In  the  previous  century  she 
would  have  founded  a  religious  house,  and 
perhaps  have  died  as  its  Abbess;  in  her  own 
time  she  became  the  foundress  of  educational 
establishments  of  which  we  have  possibly  not 
yet  seen  the  complete  development. 

190 


z    a 

c    2 


THE  LADY  MARGARET 

Her  character  was  delineated  by  her  devoted 
friend  and  counsellor,  Bishop  Fisher,  in  the  com- 
memorative sermon  preached  by  him  after  her 
death,  in  language  which  is  as  interesting  as  a 
specimen  of  the  best  English  of  the  time,  as  for 
the  picture  it  gives  of  the  illustrious  lady  whom 
he  knew  and  loved  so  well : 

'She  was  bounteous  and  lyberal  to  every  person 
of  her  knowledge  or  acquaintance.  Avarice  and 
covetyse  she  most  hated,  and  sorowed  it  full  moche 
in  all  persons,  but  especially  in  ony  that  belong'd 
unto  her.  She  was  also  of  syngular  easyness  to  be 
spoken  unto,  and  full  curtayse  answere  she  would 
make  to  all  that  came  unto  her.  Of  mervayllous 
gentyleness  she  was  unto  all  folks,  but  specially 
unto  her  owne,  whom  she  trusted  and  loved  ryghte 
tenderly.  Unkynde  she  wolde  not  be  unto  no 
creature,  ne  forgetfull  of  ony  kyndness  or  servyce 
done  to  her  before,  which  is  no  ly tel  part  of  veray 
nobleness.  She  w^as  not  vengeable,  ne  cruell,  but 
redy  anone  to  forgete  and  to  forgyve  injuryes  done 
unto  her,  at  the  leest  desyre  or  mocyon  made  unto 
her  for  the  same.  Mercyfull  also  and  pyteous  she 
was  unto  such  as  was  grevyed  and"  wrongfully 
troubled,  and  to  them  that  were  in  poverty  or 
sekeness  or  any  other  mysery.  To  God  and  to  the 
Chirclie  full  obedient  and  tractable,  serchynge  His 
honour  and  plesure  full  besyly.    A  wareness  of  her 

191 


CAMBRIDGE 

self  she  had  alway  to  eschewe  every  thyng,  that 
myght  dishonest  ony  noble  woman,  or  distayne  her 
honour  in  ony  eondycyon.  Fryvelous  thyngs,  that 
were  lytell  to  be  regarded,  she  wold  let  pass  by, 
but  the  other  that  were  of  Aveyght  and  substance, 
wherein  she  might  proufyte,  she  wolde  not  let  for 
any  payne  or  labour,  to  take  upon  hande. 

'  All  Englonde  for  her  dethe  had  cause  of  wepynge. 
The  poor  creatures  that  were  wonte  to  receyve  her 
almes,  to  whom  she  was  always  pyteous  and  mercy- 
full;  the  studentes  of  both  the  Unyversytees,  to 
whom  she  was  as  a  moder;  all  the  learned  men  of 
Englonde,  to  whom  she  was  a  veray  patroness ;  all 
the  vertuous  and  devoute  persones,  to  whom  she 
was  as  a  lovynge  syster ;  all  the  good  relygyous 
men  and  women,  wliome  she  so  often  was  wonte  to 
vysyte  and  comforte;  all  good  preests  and  clercks, 
to  whome  she  was  a  true  def  endresse ;  all  the  noble- 
men and  women,  to  whome  she  was  a  myrroure  and 
exampler  of  honoure ;  all  the  comyn  people  of  this 
realme,  for  whome  she  was  in  theyr  causes  a  comyn 
medyatryce,  and  toke  right  grete  displeasure  for 
them ;  and  generally  the  hole  realm  hathe  cause  to 
complayne  and  to  morne  her  dethe.' 

She  died  29th  of  June  1509,  in  the  midst  of 
the  rejoicings  over  her  grandson's  marriage  and 
coronation.  She  was  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  Erasmus  wrote  her  epitaph.  Anxious 
aa  she  had  been  to  see  her  second  college  well 

192 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

established  before  her  death,  that  gratification 
was  not  vouchsafed  to  her.  The  legal  for- 
malities necessary  for  the  suppression  of  the 
Hospital  were  so  tedious  that  it  was  not '  utterly- 
extinguished,'  as  Baker  calls  it,  till  January  20, 
1510;  when  it  fell,  as  the  same  historian  ob- 
serves, '  a  lasting  monument  to  all  future  ages, 
and  to  all  charitable  and  religious  foundations, 
not  to  neglect  the  rules  or  abuse  the  institu- 
tions of  their  founders,  lest  they  fall  under  the 
same  fate.'  The  executors  of  the  Lady  Mar- 
garet, now  that  she  was  no  longer  present  to 
lend  her  own  powerful  aid  to  the  undertaking, 
had  other  and  more  serious  difficulties  to  en- 
counter, which  need  not  be  related  here.  How- 
ever, they  adhered  firmly  to  their  purpose,  and 
were  successful.  The  college  was  begun  in  or 
about  1511,  and  the  first  court  was  carried  on, 
without  interruption,  until  it  was  completed. 
The  college  was  formally  opened  by  Bishop 
Fisher,  July  29, 1516.  The  position  of  the  court 
then  erected  was  determined  by  one  of  the 
buildings  of  the  Hospital,  which  was  altered 
into  a  chapel  for  the  new  foundation,  and 
formed  the  greater  part  of  the  north  side. 
The  west  side  contained  the  hall,  buttery,  and 
2  b  193 


CAMBRIDGE  s  t^ff^ 

kitchen;  the  south  side  a  range  of  chambers; 
and  the  east  side  the  library,  with  chambers 
beneath  it.  The  Master's  Lodge  was  placed  in 
the  angle  between  the  north  and  west  ranges, 
but  a  portion  of  it  was  prolonged  into  the 
north  range,  where  a  picturesque  oriel  window 
enabled  the  Master  to  command  the  court. 
Unfortunately  it  has  now  become  impossible  to 
realise  the  original  aspect  of  this  quadrangle, 
as  preserved  for  us  by  Loggan.  The  south  side 
was  cased  with  stone  in  a  pseudo-Italian  style 
by  Essex  in  1772;  and  between  1862  and  1869, 
under  the  direction  of  Sir  G.  G.  Scott,  the  hall 
was  lengthened,  the  old  chapel  pulled  down,  and 
a  new  chapel,  magnificent  it  is  true,  but  singu- 
larly inappropriate  both  in  style  and  design, 
was  erected  beyond  the  ancient  limits  of  the 
quadrangle.  The  beautiful  gate  of  entrance, 
shown  in  our  illustration,  has  happily  survived 
these  changes.  It  is  of  red  brick  with  stone 
quoins.  The  lavish  decoration  of  the  space  be- 
tween the  arch  and  the  windows  commemorates 
the  foundress  and  her  son.  The  central  shield, 
bearing  the  arms  of  England  and  France 
quarterly,  is  supported  by  the  antelopes  of 
Beaufort.    Beneath  it  is  a  rose.    To  the  right 

194    . 


GATE   OK 
ENTRANCE, 

ST.  John's  cou.ec.k. 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

is  a  portcullis,  to  the  left  a  rose,  both  crowned. 
Daisies,  the  particular  emblem  of  the  Lady 
Margaret,  are  scattered  over  the  whole  com- 
position. They  appear  in  the  crown  above 
the  portcullis;  they  cluster  beneath  the  string- 
course ;  and  mixed  with  other  flowers  they  form 
a  groundwork  to  the  heraldic  devices.  The 
statue  of  St.  John  in  the  central  niche  was 
carved  in  1662,  to  replace  an  older  statue  re- 
moved during  the  Civil  War.  There  is  evidence 
that  formerly  the  arms  were  emblazoned  in  gold 
and  colours,  and  that  the  horns  of  the  antelopes 
were  gilt. 

The  second  court,  a  spacious  quadrangle,  con- 
siderably larger  than  the  first,  was  commenced 
in  1598.  The  architect  was  Ralph  Symons, 
whose  work  at  Trinity  has  been  already  re- 
corded, and  the  builder  Gilbert  Wigge  of  Cam- 
bridge. It  was  finished  in  1602  'in  a  manner,' 
says  Baker,  •  ruinous  to  the  undertakers  and 
not  over  advantageous  to  the  College.'  It 
appears  that  Wigge  got  into  pecuniary  diffi- 
culties, and  was  imprisoned  for  debt  during  the 
progress  of  the  work,  the  college  having  to 
release  him  from  durance  vile ;  and  further, 
that   no    inconsiderable    part   of   the   cost  fell 

195 


CAMBRIDGE 

upon  the  Master  and  Fellows.  Mary  Cavendish, 
Countess  of  Shrewsbury,  had  originally  under- 
taken to  defray  the  entire  cost,  but  she  found 
herself  unable  to  pay  more  than  £2760,  instead 
of  £3400,  the  amount  of  the  contract.  For  some 
private  reasons  she  wished  that  her  share  in  the 
work  should  remain  unknown.  Such  attempts, 
however,  whether  in  literature  or  benefactions, 
are  rarely  successful,  and  her  case  was  no  excep- 
tion to  the  general  rule.  After  remarking  that 
'she  is  justly  entitled  to  the  foundation  of  the 
whole,  what  she  did  being  wholly  owing  to  her 
favour,  and  what  she  left  undone  being  owing 
to  her  misfortunes,'  the  historian  adds : 

'  It  is  certain  the  secret  was  out  before  the  build- 
ing was  up,  and  that  both  she  and  the  lord  her 
husband  were  known  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  the 
design,  though  from  a  clause  in  the  contract  it 
seems  to  have  been  at  first  a  secret,  where  the 
undertakers  oblige  themselves  to  leave  room  over 
the  gate  for  such  arms  as  the  College  should 
afterwards  set  up  there,  which  are  now  the  arms 
of  Talbot  and  Cavendish.' 

In  Baker's  time  the  building  was  thought  to 
be  'slight  and  crazy,'  and  that  it  would  'never 
live  up  to  the  age  of  the  first  court.'     These 

196 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

anticipations  have  happily  been  falsified  by  the 
event.  The  second  court  has,  in  fact,  suffered 
less  than  the  first,  and  is  still  a  beautiful  speci- 
men of  the  architecture  of  the  period  when  it 
was  erected. 

Secrecy  seems  to  have  been  the  rule  in  this 
college  where  buildings  were  concerned ;  for  it 
was  attempted  with  regard  to  the  third  court 
in  much  the  same  way,  and  with  the  same 
amount  of  success,  as  for  the  second.  In  1617 
a  new  library  was  required.  Leave  was  ob- 
tained from  the  Countess  of  Shrewsbury  to 
build  one  'adjoining  her  ladyship's  court,'  and 
the  college  set  about  collecting  funds,  but  money 
came  in  slowly.  Before  the  foundation  had  been 
laid,  however,  'an  unknown  person'  came  for- 
ward and  offered  £1200  to  that  use,  if  it  were 
sufficient,  'but  would  neither  advance  higher, 
nor  yet  was  willing  to  admit  a  partner.'  As 
may  be  imagined,  a  donation  clogged  with  such 
a  condition  as  this  caused  considerable  trouble ; 
but  at  last  the  '  unknown  person '  gave  way,  and 
agreed  to  give  about  £250  more,  with  which  the 
beautiful  Library  forming  the  north  side  of  the 
third  court  was  erected.  The  foundations  of  the 
west  end  are  laid  in  the  river,  above  which  the 

197 


CAMBRIDGE 

lofty  oriel  rises.  It  is  a  singularly  picturesque 
structure  of  red  brick  with  stone  dressings. 
The  date,  1624,  inscribed  upon  it  in  large  figures 
of  white  stone,  marks  the  completion  of  that 
portion  of  the  building  only,  for  it  was  not 
ready  for  the  books  until  the  spring  of  1628. 
In  the  course  of  the  tedious  negotiations  en- 
tailed by  the  strange  conditions  of  the  gift,  the 
anonymous  benefactor  'owned  and  declared 
himself  to  be  the  founder.'  He  turned  out  to 
be  Dr.  John  Williams,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Lord 
Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal.  The  remaining  two 
sides  of  this  third  court  were  not  begun  for 
rather  more  than  half  a  century  afterwards. 
The  foundations  were  laid  in  1669,  and  the 
whole  completed  in  four  years;  the  expense 
being  defrayed  by  numerous  benefactors,  this 
time  not  anonymous.  By  the  time  that  those 
ranges  of  chambers  were  built  the  Gothic  style 
had  given  way  to  the  classical.  Some  attempt, 
however,  was  made  to  assimilate  the  new  build- 
ing to  the  old,  and  no  want  of  harmony  is  per- 
ceptible. Our  woodcut  shows  the  gate  in  the 
centre  of  the  west  side,  a  picturesque  structure 
in  three  floors,  recalling  in  its  general  outline 
the  gates  of  Clare  Hall. 

198 


GATEWAY    IN    THE 
THIRD   COURT    OK 

ST.  John's. 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

The  need  for  still  further  accommodation  at 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  prompted 
the  erection  of  yet  a  fourth  court ;  the  Society 
recognising  their  obligation  to  retain  their 
undergraduate  members,  as  far  as  possible, 
within  the  precincts  of  the  college.  The  shape 
of  the  ground  eastward  of  the  Cam  seemed  to 
preclude  all  chance  of  building  in  close  proxi- 
mity to  the  other  courts ;  and  a  site  was  selected 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  river  opposite  to  the 
library.  On  this  Mr.  Rickman  raised  a  lofty 
and  pretentious  structure,  capable  of  accom- 
modating a  great  number  of  persons.  There, 
however,  its  merits  end.  It  should  be  men- 
tioned in  justification  of  the  architect  that  the 
ground,  which  in  the  seventeenth  century  was 
occupied  by  a  number  of  fish-ponds,  as  Loggan 
shows,  offered  such  an  insecure  foundation  that 
a  large  sum  of  money  had  to  be  spent  upon 
concrete.  Hence  much  that  should  have  been 
executed  in  stone  was  worked  in  wood  or 
plaster,  and  the  portions  out  of  sight  are  of 
plain  white  brick.  The  general  design,  how- 
ever, shows  that  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
history  and  theory  of  architecture  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  make  a  practical  architect.     This  court 

199 


CAMBRIDGE 

is  joined  to  the  older  college  by  a  very  pic- 
turesque bridge  in  a  Gothic  style,  usually  spoken 
of  as  'The  Bridge  of  Sighs,'  from  a  superficial 
resemblance  to  the  so-called  structure  at  Venice, 
by  which  its  general  outlines  may  have  been 
suggested.  Beyond  the  new  court  are  the  ex- 
tensive gardens,  on  the  western  side  of  which 
is  the  delightful  'Wilderness,'  where  a  natural 
profusion  of  wild  flowers,  overshadowed  by 
lofty  trees,  contrasts  agreeably  with  a  carefully 
kept  bowling-green.  This  is  the  spot  com- 
memorated by  Wordsworth  in  The  Prelude^  but 
his  favourite  tree  is  now  no  more. 

•  All  winter  long,  whenever  free  to  choose, 
Did  I  by  night  frequent  the  College  grove 
And  tributary  walks  ;  the  last,  and  oft 
The  only  one,  who  had  been  lingering  there 
Through  hours  of  silence,  till  the  porter's  bell, 
A  punctual  follower  on  the  stroke  of  nine, 
Rang,  with  its  blunt,  unceremonious  voice. 
Inexorable  summons.    Lofty  elms. 
Inviting  shades  of  opportune  recess. 
Bestowed  composure  on  a  neighbourhood 
Unpeaceful  in  itself.    A  single  tree. 
With  sinuous  trunk,  boughs  exquisitely  wreathed. 
Grew  there  ;  an  ash,  which  Winter  for  himself 
Decked  out  with  pride,  and  with  outlandish  grace : 
Up  from  the  ground,  and  almost  to  the  top. 
The  trunk  and  every  master-branch  were  green 

200 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

With  clustering  ivy,  and  the  lightsome  twigs 
The  outer  spray  profusely  tipped  with  seeds 
That  hung  in  yellow  tassels,  while  the  air 
Stirred  them,  not  voiceless.    Often  have  I  stood. 
Foot-bound,  up-looking  at  this  lovely  tree 
Beneath  a  frosty  moon.    The  hemisphere 
Of  magic  fiction  verse  of  mine  perchance 
May  never  tread ;  but  scarcely  Spenser's  self 
Could  have  more  tranquil  visions  in  his  youth. 
Or  could  more  bright  appearances  create 
Of  human  forms  with  superhuman  powers. 
Than  I  beheld,  loitering  on  calm  clear  nights, 
Alone,  beneath  this  fairy-work  of  Earth.' 

Wordsworth  resided  in  this  college  from  1787 
to  1791.  His  rooms  were  in  the  first  or  entrance- 
court,  as  he  tells  us  in  the  same  poem : 

'  The  Evangelist  Saint  John  my  patron  was  : 
Three  Gothic  courts  are  his  ;  and  in  the  first 
Was  my  abiding-place,  a  nook  obscure. 
Right  underneath,  the  college  kitchens  made 
A  humming  sound,  less  tuneable  than  bees. 
But  hardly  less  industrious,  with  shrill  notes 
Of  sharp  command  and  scolding  intermixed.' 

Like  Byron,  Wordsworth  misunderstood  the 
University.  He  came  up  with  enthusiastic  ideas, 
formed  in  lonely  hours  among  the  hills  and 
dales  of  Westmoreland;  and  when  he  found 
that  those  among  whom  he  was  thrown  were 
not  all  that  he  had  expected  them  to  be,  he 
2c  201 


CAMBRIDGE 

laid  the  fault  on  the  institutions,  and  not  on 
the  persons  whose  lives  offended  him.  Hence 
he  became  careless  of  academic  honours;  and 
is  said  to  have  passed  the  week  before  his  de- 
gree in  reading  Clarissa  Harlowe;  an  action 
that  would  have  been  most  prudent  had  he 
been  ready  for  examination,  but  unprepared 
as  he  was,  could  be  due  only  to  indifference  or 
to  ostentation. 

Having  spoken  of  the  great  college  which  the 
Lady  Margaret  was  prevented  by  death  from 
seeing  in  its  completeness,  let  us  say  a  few 
words  about  her  first  foundation  —  Christ's 
College.  It  occupies  the  site  of  the  Grammar 
College,  called  God's  House,  which  was  first 
placed  near  Clare  Hall,  as  we  have  related  in 
our  account  of  King's  College.  The  site  being 
required  by  King  Henry  the  Sixth,  he  allowed, 
and  probably  assisted,  William  Bingham  the 
founder,  to  acquire  a  new  site  in  what  was 
then  called  Preachers'  Street,  after  the  Domini- 
can Friars.  It  was  intended  that  the  Society 
should  consist  of  a  master,  called  Proctor,  and 
twenty-four  scholars.  The  revenues,  however, 
were  insufficient ;  and  when  the  Lady  Margaret's 
attention    was    drawn    to    it,    the    number    of 

202 


CHRIST'S  COLLEGE 

scholars  was  only  four.  She  was  influenced  in 
her  action,  if  we  may  believe  tradition,  by  her 
confessor.  Bishop  Fisher,  who,  on  the  same 
authority,  had  been  a  member  of  it  when  he 
first  entered  the  University.  Partly  from  her 
own  resources,  and  partly  through  her  influence 
with  her  son,  she  endowed  it  with  sufficient 
revenues ;  changed  the  name  to  Christ's  College, 
'from  her  singular  devotion  to  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ';  gave  to  it  a  body  of  statutes, 
and  lived  to  see  the  quadrangle  completed. 
Part  of  the  Master's  Lodge  she  reserved  to  her 
own  use,  and  may  perhaps  have  even  resided 
in  it ;  for  Fuller  says  that  she  once  came  to 
the  College  '  to  behold  it  when  partly  built,  and 
looking  out  of  a  window,  saw  the  Dean  call  a 
faulty  scholar  to  correction,  to  whom  she  said, 
" Lente,  lente,  Gently,  gently!"  as  accounting  it 
better  to.  mitigate  his  punishment  than  procure 
his  pardon.'  The  old  quadrangular  arrange- 
ment may  be  traced  in  this  college  more  easily 
than  elsewhere  behind  the  classical  facing  im- 
posed upon  the  old  walls  in  the  last  century. 
The  chapel  is  on  the  north  side;  the  east  side 
contains  the  Master's  lodge,  and  the  hall;  and 
the    south    and    west    sides    are    occupied    by 

203 


CAMBRIDGE 

chambers.  In  the  centre  of  the  latter  is  a 
noble  gateway,  flanked  by  towers,  and  decorated 
with  the  arms  and  emblems  of  the  foundress. 
The  position  of  the  lodge,  between  the  hall  and 
the  chapel,  illustrates  well  the  ancient  arrange- 
ments for  the  convenience  of  the  Head ;  and  an 
external  turret-stair,  like  that  at  Peterhouse, 
may  still  be  seen  on  the  side  next  the  garden. 
The  beautiful  building  eastward  of  the  older 
quadrangle  was  completed  about  1642.  It  is,  of 
course,  in  the  classical  style  of  that  period,  and 
tradition  records  that  the  architect  was  Inigo 
Jones.  Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  the  artist 
who  designed  it  was  unquestionably  of  first-rate 
ability,  and  he  has  produced  one  of  the  most 
admirable  specimens  of  architecture  in  the  Uni- 
versity. The  garden  behind  it,  perhaps  the 
most  delightful  of  all  the  collegiate  gardens 
of  Cambridge,  contains  the  aged  mulberry-tree, 
its  trunk  protected  by  an  embankment  of  earth, 
and  its  decrepit  branches  supported  on  wooden 
props,  which  an  unvarying  tradition  asserts  to 
have  been  planted  by  Milton.  He  resided  here 
for  seven  years,  from  February,  1625,  to  July, 
1632.  His  rooms  were  on  the  left  side  of  the 
court  as  it  is  entered  from  the  street,  the  first- 

204 


the  garden  of 
Christ's  college. 


CHRIST'S  COLLEGE 

floor  rooms  on  the  first  staircase  on  that  side. 
They  consist  at  present  of  a  small  study  with 
two  windows  looking  into  the  court,  and  a  very 
small  bedroom  adjoining.  They  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  altered  since  his  time.  His  bio- 
graphers, as  is  well  known,  have  all  recorded 
that  his  first  tutor,  Mr.  Chappell,  caused  him 
to  be  flogged ;  and  much  has  been  written  both 
to  support  and  discredit  the  story.  The  public 
correction  of  undergraduates  had  not  then  been 
given  up ;  for  so  late  as  1649,  Henry  Stubbe, 
afterwards  a  writer  of  repute,  was  flogged  in 
the  Hall  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  for  *  insolent 
and  pragmatical  conduct.'  If  true,  it  is  at  least 
remarkable  that  none  of  Milton's  numerous 
enemies  in  after-years  should  have  reproached 
him  with  it;  and  the  language  he  uses  in  1642 
shows  that  he  had  come  to  think  as  lightly  of 
it  as  men  do  nowadays  of  'swishings'  at  school, 
and  that  his  superiors  also  had  not  been  slow 
to  forget  the  conduct  that  led  to  it. 

'  I  acknowledge  publicly,'  he  says,  '  with  all  grate- 
ful mind,  that  more  than  ordinary  respect  which  I 
found,  above  any  of  my  equals,  at  the  hands  of  those 
courteous  and  learned  men,  the  Fellows  of  that 
College  wherein  I  spent  some  years ;   who,  at  my 

205 


CAMBRIDGE 

parting,  after  I  had  taken  two  degrees,  as  the 
manner  is,  signified  many  ways  how  much  better  it 
would  content  them  that  I  would  stay  ;  as  by  many 
letters  full  of  kindness  and  loving  respect,  both 
before  that  time  and  long  after,  I  was  assured  of 
their  singular  good  affection  towards  me.' 


206 


IX 


COLLEGE  OF  ST.  MARY  MAGDALENE:  COLLEGE 
AND    UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 

The  College  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene  originated 
in  two  messuages  granted  by  Henry  vi.  in  1428 
to  the  Benedictine  House  of  Croyland  for  the 
convenience  of  those  monks  who  wished  to 
study  at  Cambridge.  Out  of  these  messuages, 
or  on  their  site,  a  house  was  gradually  con- 
structed for  the  general  use  of  the  Benedictine 
Order,  'different  monasteries  building  different 
portions ;  thus  Ely  built  one  chamber,  Walden  a 
second,  Ramsey  a  third,'  says  Dr.  Caius ;  and  so 
late  as  1777  Cole  saw  the  arms  of  Ely  in  the 
spandrels  of  the  door  at  the  north-west  corner 
of  the  court.  Gloucester  College  at  Oxford, 
now  Worcester  College,  was  constructed  in  a 
precisely  similar  manner  for  the  same  Order. 
The  chapel  probably  belongs  to  this  period  of 
the  history  of  the  house.    It  was  at  first  called 

207 


CAMBRIDGE 

simply  •  The  Monks'  Hostel ' ;  but,  before  1483,  it 
had  acquired  the  name  of  Buckingham  College, 
from  Henry  Stafford,  second  Duke,  who  was 
beheaded  by  Richard  iii.  in  that  year.  The 
reason  for  its  connection  with  him  has  not  been 
recorded ;  but  it  is  evident  that  he  had  placed  it 
under  the  patronage  of  his  family,  for  his  son, 
Edward  Stafford,  built  the  hall  in  1519.  Buck- 
ingham College  naturally  ceased  when  the 
superior  house,  Croyland  Abbey,  surrendered  to 
Henry  viii.  in  1539 ;  but  the  continuity  was  never 
sensibly  broken,  and  within  two  years  and  a 
half  it  was  ref  ounded  under  its  present  name  by 
Thomas,  Lord  Audley  of  Walden,  to  whom  the 
King  had  granted  it.  He  died  suddenly  in  1544, 
having  probably  made  no  change  in  the  build- 
ings, which  evidently  did  not  then  form  a 
complete  quadrangle ;  for  we  find  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  who  had  married  the  daughter  and  sole 
heiress  of  the  founder,  undertaking,  in  1564,  to 
pay  '40Z.  by  year  till  they  had  builded  the 
quadrant  of  their  College.'  The  College  was 
probably  completed,  partly  by  his  liberality, 
partly  by  that  of  Sir  Christopher  Wray,  a  sub- 
sequent benefactor,  before  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

208 


MAGDALENE  COLLEGE 

The  main  interest  of  Magdalene  College  at 
present  is  the  possession  of  the  library  formed 
by  Mr.  Samuel  Pepys,  which  is  contained  in  a 
separate  building  beyond  the  quadrangle  to  the 
east.  This  was  not  built  on  purpose  to  contain 
it,  as  is  generally  supposed,  but  was  approaching 
completion  at  the  time  when  Pepys  determined 
to  bequeath  his  library  either  to  Trinity  College 
or  to  Magdalene  College.  The  name  of  the 
architect,  and  the  precise  date  of  the  structure — 
an  extremely  beautiful  one,  as  our  woodcut 
shows— are  unfortunately  alike  unknown.  Re- 
garding the  disposition  of  his  library,  Pepys 
committed  to  writing,  as  part  of  his  will,  what 
he  modestly  terms  his  '  present  thoughts  and 
inclinations '  in  the  matter,  among  which,  after 
stating  that  he  prefers  a  private  college  to  the 
Public  Library  of  the  University,  and  Magdalene 
College  to  Trinity  College,  '  for  the  sake  of  my 
own  and  nephew's  education  therein,'  he  ex- 
presses a  wish  'that  a  fair  roome  be  provided  on 
purpose  for  it,  and  wholely  and  solely  appro- 
priated thereto ;  and  if  in  Magdalen,  that  it  be 
in  the  new  building  there,  and  any  part  thereof, 
at  my  nephew's  selection.'  There  accordingly 
it  is  now  deposited,  and  the  name  '  Bibliotheca 
2d  209 


CAMBRIDGE 

Pepysiana '  has  been  inscribed  on  the  front  of  the 
building,  according  to  his  desire,  together  with 
his  motto,  'Mens  cujusque  is  est  quisque,'  and 
the  date  1724,  when  the  death  of  his  nephew, 
Mr.  Jackson,  put  the  College  in  possession  of  the 
bequest. 

Pepys  had  begun  his  life  at  Cambridge  as  an 
undergraduate  in  1650.  He  had  been  entered 
at  Trinity,  but,  before  his  residence  commenced 
there,  had  removed  to  Magdalene.  He  does  not 
appear  to  have  ever  taken  a  degree,  and,  perhaps, 
did  not  stay  long  at  the  University.  Through- 
out his  busy  life,  however,  he  preserved  a  warm 
affection  for  Cambridge,  and  for  his  own  college 
in  particular,  which  he  frequently  visited,  as  his 
amusing  diary  records.  The  last  time  that  he 
came  there,  during  the  period  of  the  diary,  was 
in  May  1668,  of  which  visit  he  has  left  the  follow- 
ing characteristic  description : 

'  Here  lighting  [at  Cambridge],  I  took  my  boy  and 
two  brothers,  and  walked  to  Magdalene  College :  and 
there  into  the  butterys,  as  a  stranger,  and  there 
drank  my  bellyfull  of  their  beer,  which  pleased  me, 
as  the  best  I  ever  drank :  and  hear  by  the  butler's 
man,  who  was  son  to  Goody  Mulliner  over  against 
the  College,  that  we  used  to  buy  stewed  prunes  of, 

210 


'// 


X^-^^  EOT,  IKcSlI^I     ^   ' 


Xr  iinLiirf-itiiii.bii ';.'' 


MAGDALENE  COLLEGE 

concerning  the  College  and  persons  in  it;  and  find 
very  few,  only  Mr.  Hollins  and  Pechell,  I  think,  that 
were  of  my  time.  Thence,  giving  the  fellow  some- 
thing, away  walked  to  Chesterton,  to  see  our  old 
walk,  and  there  into  the  Church,  the  bells  ringing, 
and  saw  the  place  I  used  to  sit  in,  and  so  to  the 
ferry,  and  ferried  over  to  the  other  side,  and  walked 
Avith  great  pleasure,  the  river  being  mighty  high  by 
Barnewell  Abbey  :  and  so  by  Jesus  College  to  the 
town,  and  so  to  our  quarters,  and  to  supper.' 

The  collection  is  a  very  interesting  one,  not 
only  from  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  books, 
pamphlets,  maps,  various  illustrations  of  naval 
matters  at  that  day,  and  a  vast  mass  of  fugitive 
contemporary  literature,  such  as  broadsides, 
placards,  street  ballads,  and  the  like,  indispens- 
able to  the  historian  or  antiquary  engaged  in 
the  investigation  of  the  troublous  times  in  which 
Pepys  lived ;  but  also  from  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  volumes  are  in  the  bindings  of  his  time,  and 
are  still  in  the  very  bookcases  of  mahogany, 
glazed,  in  which  they  were  placed  by  him  in  1666. 
Pepys  records  the  arrival  of  his  bookcases,  on 
August  24th  in  that  year,  with  much  enthu- 
siasm : 

'  Up,  and  despatched  several  businesses  at  home  in 
the  morning,  and  then  comes  Simpson  to  set  up  my 

211 


♦  CAMBRIDGE 

other  new  presses  for  my  books  ;  and  so  he  and  I  fell 
to  the  furnishing  of  my  new  closett,  and  taking  out 
the  things  out  of  my  old ;  and  I  kept  him  with  me 
all  day,  and  he  dined  with  me,  and  so  all  the  after- 
noone,  till  it  was  quite  darke,  hanging  things, — that 
is,  my  maps,  and  pictures,  and  draughts,— and  set- 
ting up  my  books,  and  as  much  as  we  could  do,  to 
my  most  extraordinary  satisfaction ;  so  that  I  think 
it  will  be  as  noble  a  closett  as  any  man  hath,  and 
light  enough,— though,  indeed,  it  would  be  better  to 
have  had  a  little  more  light.' 

Many  subsequent  entries  record  the  almost 
childish  pleasure  he  derived  from  this  new 
arrangement,  and  the  solace  he  found,  in  the 
midst  of  many  distracting  cares,  from  cata- 
loguing and  ticketing  his  books.  The  diary  does 
not  say  anything  about  the  way  in  which  he  got 
them  together.  He  does  not  exult,  as  most 
bibliomaniacs  do,  over  the  acquisition  of  each 
new  treasure.  He  only  speaks  generally,  in  the 
document  quoted  above,  of  'the  infinite  pains, 
and  time,  and  cost  employed  in  my  collecting, 
methodising,  and  reducing  the  same  to  the  state 
it  now  is.' 

The  mention  of  the  Pepysian  Library  suggests 
a  few  remarks  on  other  similar  repositories  for 
books  in  the  colleges  and  university.    At  first 

212 


COLLEGE  LIBRARIES 

the  stock  of  books,  or  rather  manuscripts,  in  a 
college  was  so  scanty,  that  a  chest  or  two  in  the 
muniment-room  or  chapel  was  probably  suffi- 
cient for  their  accommodation.  As  soon,  how- 
ever, as  the  college  system  had  definitely  taken 
root,  we  find  the  acquisition  of  books  recorded, 
and  a  library  taking  its  place  in  every  quad- 
rangle. The  erection  of  that  of  Peterhouse,  in 
1431,  has  been  already  mentioned.  It  occupied, 
originally,  nearly  the  whole  of  the  western  side 
of  the  principal  court,  and  must  have  been  an 
excellent  specimen  of  a  medieval  library.  These 
libraries  were  usually  long,  narrow,  and  rather 
low  rooms,  lighted  by  numerous  windows  in  the 
side-walls,  which  were  placed  tolerably  near 
together,  and  at  no  great  height  above  the  floor. 
There  was  also  a  single  and  larger  window  at 
one  or  both  ends.  This  arrangement  was  dic- 
tated by  the  necessity  for  affording  ample  light 
to  the  readers ;  for  the  more  valuable  books,  or 
perhaps  all  those  of  which  there  was  only  a 
single  copy,  were  not  allowed  to  be  taken  out  by 
any  one,  and  for  greater  security  were  attached 
by  iron  chains  to  a  bar  fixed  in  front  of  the 
shelves.  It  was  therefore  necessary,  especially 
in  college    libraries,  where    readers   might    be 

213 


CAMBRIDGE 

expected  to  be  numerous,  to  provide  facilities 
for  consulting  a  large  number  of  books  at  the 
same  time.  On  this  account  medieval  libraries 
are  usually  far  larger  than  would  be  expected 
from  the  number  of  books  contained  in  each  of 
them.  The  bookcases  projected  from  the  wall 
between  each  pair  of  windows,  and  usually  con- 
sisted of  only  one  shelf,  raised  three  or  four  feet 
above  the  ground.  Between  each  pair  of  book- 
cases there  was  a  bench  to  accommodate  the 
reader,  directly  in  front  of  the  window.  The 
books  stood  with  their  leaves  turned  outwards 
instead  of  their  backs  as  at  the  present  day,  and 
the  titles  were  written  in  ink  across  the  closed 
leaves.  The  chains  were  usually  attached  to  the 
left-hand  cover,  so  that  they  did  not  get  in  the 
reader's  way,  and  they  were  sufficiently  long  to 
enable  him  to  take  down  the  volume  he  wanted 
to  consult,  and  place  it  on  his  knees,  or  on  a  desk 
immediately  under  the  shelf  on  which  the 
volumes  stood.  Where  there  was  more  than 
one  shelf  the  chains  belonging  to  the  upper  shelf 
were,  of  course,  longer  than  those  belonging  to 
the  lower  one.  It  was  part  of  the  duty  of  a 
librarian,  in  those  days,  to  see  that  the  chains 
did  not  get  tangled. 

214 


TRINITY    HALL 
LIBRARY. 


COLLEGE  LIBRARIES 

One  of  these  ancient  libraries  exists  almost 
unaltered  at  Merton  College,  Oxford.  The  seats 
are  still  there,  and  the  single  shelf,  though 
altered  to  suit  modern  requirements,  can  easily 
be  made  out.  Another,  equally  curious,  is  to  be 
seen  at  Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge.  It  is  not  so 
ancient,  dating  only  from  the  early  part  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  it  has  been  even 
less  altered,  and  is  one  of  the  most  quaintly 
picturesque  rooms  in  the  University.  The  book- 
cases offer  the  peculiarity  of  a  desk  at  the  top, 
placed  just  so  high  that  a  student  had  his  choice 
of  placing  his  book  upon  it  and  standing  to  read 
it,  or  of  sitting  in  the  more  usual  way.  The 
earliest  bookcases  were  plain  even  to  rudeness, 
being  made  of  strong  thick  planks  roughly 
nailed  together;  but  gradually  ornamentation 
was  admitted,  and  some  of  the  bookcases  set  up 
in  the  seventeenth  century  are  richly  carved 
and  decorated.  After  the  invention  of  printing, 
the  number  of  books  had  of  course  increased, 
and  the  practice  of  chaining,  though  not  aban- 
doned, was  no  longer  universal.  From  the 
earliest  times  certain  volumes  had  been  reserved 
for  the  use  of  the  Fellows,  and  were  distributed 
annually  among  them.    The  statutes  in  some 

215 


CAMBRIDGE 

colleges  prescribe  minutely  the  assignment  of 
these  books.  They  were  to  be  brought  back 
once  a  year,  and  their  condition  examined,  after 
which  they  were  redistributed,  but  the  same 
book  was  not  to  be  assigned  a  second  time  to  the 
same  person,  and  so  forth.  By  this  system  the 
libraries  became  gradually  divided  into  what 
was  called  an  outer  and  an  inner  library.  The 
former  contained  the  books  that  might  be  taken 
out,  the  latter  the  more  valuable  ones  that  could 
only  be  consulted  in  the  building  itself.  These 
remained  chained  down  to  the  end  of  the  last 
century  in  many  instances.  The  increase  in  the 
number  of  volumes,  however,  had  caused  an 
alteration  in  the  shape  and  arrangement  of  the 
bookcases.  It  was  impossible  any  longer  to 
afford  the  space  required  by  the  old  system. 
First  the  seat  between  the  windows  was  removed, 
and  replaced  by  a  low  bookcase.  Then  the  space 
under  the  window  was  utilised,  and  so  the 
libraries  became  subdivided  into  classes,  and  the 
books  were  sorted  according  to  their  subject. 
The  seat  for  the  reader  was  attached  to  the 
lowest  shelf,  on  which  he  sat  with  his  back  to 
the  books — a  far  less  comfortable  arrangement 
for    him  than  the  old  one   had    been.     When 

216 


COLLEGE  LIBRARIES 

chaining  went  completely  out  of  fashion,  the 
seat  was  taken  away,  and  replaced  by  a  low 
plinth.  The  end  of  the  seat,  however,  survived 
in  many  cases  as  a  piece  of  rich  carving,  shaped 
like  a  wing,  of  which  there  is  an  excellent 
example  in  the  old  library  of  Pembroke  College, 
fitted  up  in  1690,  possibly  from  the  design  of  Sir 
Christopher  Wren,  who  had  designed  the  new 
chapel,  after  which  the  old  chapel  was  utilised 
for  the  purpose  of  a  library.  In  Trinity  College 
we  have  a  splendid  and  undoubted  specimen  of 
Wren's  taste  and  skill  in  designing  woodwork. 
Chaining  was,  of  course,  no  longer  used  for 
libraries  newly  built  at  that  time,  and  he  de- 
signed his  bookcases  without  reference  to  it. 
They  are  placed  at  right  angles  to  the  walls,  but 
the  sills  of  the  windows  are  so  high  that  other 
cases,  parallel  to  the  walls,  join  those  at  right 
angles  to  them,  so  that  the  library  is  divided  into 
a  series  of  compartments  of  noble  proportions, 
each  fitted  with  a  table  and  desk  (also  designed 
by  him)  for  convenience  of  study.  The  cases  are 
of  Norway  oak,  classical  in  style,  to  suit  the 
building ;  and  they  are  ornamented  with  cherubs' 
heads,  and  wreaths  of  flowers,  leaves,  and  fruit, 
in  lime-wood,  by  the  celebrated  Grinling  Gibbons. 
2e  217 


CAMBRIDGE 

We  figure  two  of  the  heads,  and  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  of  the  wreaths  of  fruit  and 
foliage. 

The  University  was  slow  in  acquiring  public 
buildings  of  its  own,  and  the  Common  Library, 
as  a  building,  did  not  come  into  existence  before 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  though 
Dr.  Richard  Holme's  bequest  of  books,  some  of 
which  yet  remain,  dates  from  1424.  The  portion 
set  apart  for  books  was  then  the  first  floor  of 
the  south  side  of  the  quadrangle.  Two  lists  of 
books — one  made  about  1435,  and  the  other 
dated  1473 — have  fortunately  been  preserved. 
On  the  latter,  a  former  librarian,  Mr.  Bradshaw, 
after  indicating  various  points  of  interest,  made 
the  following  remarks : 

'  A  still  more  interesting  point  in  the  list  of  1473  is 
that  it  shows  us  the  books  arranged  in  classes,  with 
stalls  on  the  north  side  looking  into  the  quadrangle, 
and  desks  on  the  south  side  looking  out  towards  the 
then  rising  chapel  of  King's  College ;  and  we  are  able 
to  form  some  judgment  of  the  relative  importance  of 
the  different  studies  of  the  place  from  noticing  the 
classes  allotted  to  each  subject.  Our  historians  are 
very  fond  of  telling  us  that  the  libraries  of  the  later 
middle  ages  were  choked  with  the  writings  of  the 
schoolmen,  that  the  Bible  and  the  earlier  fathers  of 

218 


CARVINGS    IN 
TRINITY    COLLFX,E 
LIBRARY. 


UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

the  Church  had  been  supplanted  by  Petrus  Lom- 
bardus  and  his  commentators.  A  glance  at  the 
arrangement  of  the  University  library  in  1473  will 
show  how  false  this  assumption  is,  and  a  cursory 
examination  of  the  history  of  most  of  our  libraries 
will  show  that  the  great  bulk  of  scholastic  writers 
were  added  to  our  collections  by  the  benefactors  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  when  facts  show  that  these 
subjects  were  very  deeply  studied,  though  it  is  not 
always  convenient  for  those  writers  to  remember  it 
who  seek  to  depreciate  as  contemptible  everything 
that  was  studied  before  the  Reformation.  The  last 
four  classes  on  each  side  of  the  room  were  devoted 
to  Theology,  represented  by  the  Bible  text  and  the 
leading  commentators,  St.  Augustine,  St.  Jerome, 
the  Glossa  Ordinaria,  Cardinal  Hugo,  Nicholas  de 
Lyra,  and  others.  One  class  only,  next  to  the  pre- 
ceding, was  set  apart  for  Theolofjia  disputata,  the 
Master  of  the  Sentences  and  his  expositors.  The 
next  three  on  the  same  side  were  devoted  to  Canon 
Law;  and  the  remaining  class  on  the  same  side  to 
Civil  Law.  On  the  north  side,  after  the  four  classes 
allotted  to  Theology,  Moral  Philosophy,  Natural 
Philosophy,  and  Medicine  had  each  one  stall,  and 
the  remaining  one  was  given  to  Logic  and  Grammar, 
including,  besides,  such  books  as  Ovid's  Metamor- 
phoses, Lucan,  and  Claudian.' 

It  would  be  beyond  our  purpose  and  our  limits 
to  attempt  a  history  of  the  University  Library — 

219 


CAMBRIDGE 

an  enterprise  which  would  require  a  volume 
rather  than  an  essay.  We  have  been  led  to 
mention  it  merely  on  account  of  its  connection 
with  the  life  and  studies  of  the  place,  on  which 
we  shall  shortly  have  occasion  to  speak  at 
greater  length.  Unfortunately,  at  Cambridge 
we  have  no  such  voluminous  annals  as  the 
Bodleian  has,  and  few  volumes  which  go  back 
to  a  remote  antiquity.  The  hatred  of  the  old 
literature  prevalent  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Sixth  caused  the  destruction  of  the  library  of 
that  day  as  rubbish  or  worse,  and  in  the  last 
century  books  were  stolen  out  of  the  building 
wholesale.  The  statement  sounds  incredible, 
but  is  nevertheless  literally  true,  that  between 
1715  and  1750  the  pillage  was  so  unlimited  that 
the  only  wonder  is  that  any  valuable  books  have 
been  left.  The  neglect  of  libraries  during  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  almost 
universal.  A  learned  German,  Zachary  Conrad 
von  Uffenbach,  who  visited  Cambridge  in  1710, 
gives  a  deplorable  though  amusing  picture  of 
the  state  of  things  he  witnessed.  At  Caius 
College,  for  instance,  the  librarian  was  not  to  be 
found,  and  all  the  books  that  were  to  be  seen 
were  in  a  miserable  attic,  haunted  by  pigeons, 

220 


UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

and  so  dusty  that  the  visitor  was  forced  to  take 
off  his  ruffles  before  he  could  examine  them. 
The  University  Library  was  not  quite  so 
neglected  as  that;  nor  were  the  librarians  so 
needy  as  one  of  those  at  the  Bodleian,  who  had 
to  be  '  persuaded '  by  the  donation  of  a  guinea 
before  he  would  show  certain  manuscripts ! 
Our  traveller,  however,  found  the  printed  books 
'  very  ill  arranged,  in  utter  confusion,  and  could 
not  see  the  manuscripts  on  account  of  the 
absence  of  the  librarian,  Dr.  Laughton,  which 
vexed  me  not  a  little,'  he  says,  *  as  Dr.  Ferrari 
(his  guide)  highly  extolled  his  great  learning  and 
courtesy,  i^ara  avis  in  his  tents'  On  a  future 
visit  he  not  only  succeeded  in  seeing  the  coveted 
volumes,  but,  as  one  that  interested  him  *  was 
torn  at  the  end,  the  beadle  or  library-keeper, 
who  was  present,  gave  me  a  leaf,  which  I  took 
with  me  as  a  curiosity.'  Soon  after  Uffenbach's 
visit  the  Cambridge  Library  received  the  great 
accession  of  books  from  which  its  present  im- 
portance may  be  said  to  date — the  library  of 
Dr.  John  Moore,  Bishop  of  Ely,  containing  thirty 
thousand  volumes,  which  was  purchased  in  1715 
by  King  George  the  First  for  £6000,  and  given  to 
the  University  at  the  suggestion,  it  is  said,  of 

221 


CAMBRIDGE 

Lord  Townshend.  The  University  had  pre- 
sented a  loyal  address  to  his  Majesty,  which  had 
given  him  so  much  pleasure  that  he  selected 
this  substantial  method  of  testifying  his  appro- 
bation and  goodwill.  Oxford  had  taken  a  dif- 
ferent view  of  the  political  situation,  and  when 
the  library  was  sent  to  Cambridge  the  following 
epigram  appeared : 

•King  George,  observing  with  judicious  eyes 
The  state  of  both  his  Universities, 
To  Oxford  sent  a  troop  of  horse ;  and  why  ? 
That  learned  body  wanted  loyalty. 
To  Cambridge  books  he  sent,  as  well  discerning 
How  much  that  loyal  body  wanted  learning.' 

Cambridge  was  not  slow  in  publishing  an  answer, 
written  by  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  the  founder  of 
the  prize  for  epigrams : 

'  The  King  to  Oxford  sent  a  troop  of  horse, 
For  Tories  know  no  argument  but  force  ; 
With  equal  skill,  to  Cambridge  books  he  sent, 
For  Whigs  admit  no  force  but  argument.' 

Additional  space  was  required  for  so  large 
an  addition ;  and  it  was  therefore  determined, 
in  1722,  to  build  a  new  Senate  House,  so  as  to 
set  free  for  books  the  old  meeting-place  of  the 
University,  then  called  the  Regent  House,  now 

222 


UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

the  Catalogue  Room  of  the  Library.  The  present 
Senate  House  having  been  completed  (in  1730), 
it  was  thought  desirable  to  alter  the  Library,  so 
as  to  provide  still  further  accommodation,  and 
to  make  it  correspond  in  style  with  the  Senate 
House.  To  effect  this,  the  picturesque  facade, 
built  by  Bishop  Rotherham  about  1475,  was 
ruthlessly  dragged  down  (1754),  and  replaced  by 
the  present  east  room,  with  the  whole  classical 
facjade.  The  central  gateway  alone  was  saved 
from  destruction  by  the  then  possessor  of  Mad- 
ingley  Hall,  where  it  is  still  used  as  the  entrance 
to  the  stables. 


223 


GONVILLE  AND  CAIUS  COLLEGE  :  QUEENS' 
college:  EMMANUEL  COLLEGE 

We  must  now  go  back  in  chronological  order, 
and  mention  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
celebrated  colleges  in  the  University  —  that, 
namely,  which  owes  its  present  designation  to 
the  great  English  physician  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  Dr.  Caius.  Since  his  time  it  has  been 
specially  devoted  to  the  study  of  medicine.  It 
was  founded  originally  on  a  different  site,  and 
by  a  different  person.  In  1348  Edward  iil 
granted  his  licence  to  Edmund  Gonevill  (as  the 
name  is  there  spelt),  rector  of  Terrington,  in 
Norfolk,  to  found  a  college  of  twenty  scholars, 
who  were  to  be  instructed  *  in  dialectic  and  other 
sciences,'  on  a  site  that  he  selected  in  a  street 
called  Lurteburghlane.     This  site,  of  no  great 

224 


CAIUS  COLLEGE 

extent,  stood  behind  the  churchyard  of  St. 
Botolph,  at  the  north-east  corner  of  what  is  now 
Corpus  Christi  College.  The  founder  proposed 
to  call  his  college  '  The  Hall  of  the  Annunciation 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin ' ;  but  so  long  a  title  being 
found  inconvenient,  it  soon  became  popularly 
known  as  Gonville  Hall.  Three  years  after  the 
foundation  Gonville  died,  and  bequeathed  his 
college  to  the  care  of  William  Bateman,  Bishop 
of  Norwich,  who  was  himself  engaged  at  the 
same  time  in  establishing  his  own  college  of 
Trinity  Hall,  which  he  had  founded  in  1350,  for 
scholars  in  Canon  and  Civil  Law.  One  of  his 
first  acts  was  to  remove  his  friend's  college  to 
a  site  nearer  to  his  own,  where  extension  would 
be  less  difficult.  This  removal  took  place  in 
1353.  The  old  site  became  the  orchard  of  Corpus 
Christi  College,  and  Gonville's  scholars,  partly 
'jy  altering  two  large  houses  belonging  respec- 
tively to  John  de  Cambridge  and  John  Gold- 
corne — which  occupied  no  inconsiderable  portion 
of  their  new  site — partly  by  building  (through 
the  contributions  of  various  benefactors),  estab- 
lished themselves  in  what  is  now  the  inner 
court  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College.  The  Italian 
taste  of  the  last  century  has  hidden  away  the 
2f  225 


CAMBRIDGE 

picturesque  medieval  structures  that  were  still 
to  be  seen  in  1688 ;  and  a  casual  visitor  will  find 
it  hard  to  believe  that  the  old  college  is  there, 
hidden  away  under  the  modern  facing.  Such, 
however,  is  the  case,  and  a  few  years  since,  when 
a  new  window  was  being  put  into  the  Combina- 
tion Room,  one  of  the  quaint  two-light  windows 
of  the  fourteenth  century  was  exposed  to  view, 
in  a  tolerably  perfect  condition. 

Gonville's  scholars  remained  content  with  this 
narrow  site,  and  apparently  made  no  attempt 
at  enlarging  it  for  two  centuries.  On  September 
4, 1557,  it  was  refounded  as  Gonville  and  Caius 
College,  by  Dr.  John  Keys,  better  known  under 
the  Latinised  form — Caius ;  since  which  time, 
to  use  Fuller's  language,  '  as  in  the  conjunction 
of  two  Roman  Consuls,  Bibulus  and  Caius  Julius 
Csesar,  the  former  was  eclipsed  by  the  lustre  of 
the  latter;  so  this  his  namesake  Caius  hath  in 
some  sort  obscured  his  partner,  carrying  away 
the  name  of  the  College  in  common  discourse.' 
The  second  founder  had  passed  his  under- 
graduate days  in  the  older  college,  where  he 
had  obtained  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in 
1533 ;  after  which  he  became  Principal  of  Phys- 
wick  Hostel,  a  small  educational  establishment 

226 


CAIUS  COLLEGE 

affiliated  to  Gonville  Hall ;  and  apparently  con- 
tinued to  reside  in  Cambridge  until  1539.  This 
makes  his  History  of  the  University,  notwith- 
standing many  errors,  so  valuable  a  record  for 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There 
is  good  reason  for  believing  that  at  first  he 
turned  his  attention  to  divinity ;  but  his  foreign 
travels,  and  his  studies  in  Italian  Universities, 
diverted  him  to  medicine,  to  vi^hich  he  devoted 
himself  steadily  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  On 
leaving  Cambridge  he  took  up  his  abode  in  the 
University  of  Padua,  where  he  gave  lectures  on 
the  Greek  language,  and  obtained  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Medicine  in  1541.  During  a  portion 
of  his  residence  in  that  University  he  occupied 
the  same  house  as  the  celebrated  Andre  V^sale 
— better  known  by  his  Latin  name  Vesalius — 
the  first  of  those  great  anatomists  who  braved 
popular  prejudice,  and  insisted  on  the  import- 
ance of  the  dissection  of  the  human  body  as  the 
basis  of  all  medical  and  surgical  knowledge. 
On  leaving  Padua  he  travelled  through  Italy, 
visiting  the  most  famous  cities,  and  especially 
searching  their  libraries  for  manuscripts  of  the 
ancient  authors  on  medicine.  In  1544,  he  re- 
turned to  England,  and  practised  as  a  physician 

227 


CAMBRIDGE 

at  Cambridge,  Shrewsbury,  and  London,  where 
he  was  appointed  physician  to  Edward  vi.,  and 
afterwards  to  Queen  Mary  and  Queen  Elizabeth. 
He  became  President  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
in  1555,  an  office  which  he  retained  for  five  years. 
Previous    to   his   election  he   had  been  in  the 
habit  of  delivering  lectures  on  anatomy  for  the 
benefit  of  the  surgeons  of  London — the  fruit, 
doubtless,   of  his  Italian  studies  and  personal 
intercourse  with  Vesalius.    He  must,  therefore, 
have  been    a    very  prominent    person    in    the 
medical  world — a  circumstance  that  will  suffi- 
ciently account  for  the  use  that  Shakespeare 
has  made  of  his  name  when  he  wished  to  intro- 
duce a  physician  into  the  Mei^y  Wives  of  Wind- 
sor, without  any  necessity  for  supposing  that 
direct  reference  to  him  was  intended  by  the 
poet.      The  comedy,  moreover,   may  be    dated 
1601,  twenty-eight  years  after  the  death  of  Caius ; 
who,  besides,  was  not  a  Frenchman  as  there 
represented,  but  the  son  of  English  parents,  and 
born  and  bred  at  Norwich. 

His  return  to  his  college  as  co-founder  and 
generous  benefactor  —  for  it  was  part  of  his 
scheme  to  found  and  endow  fellowships  and 
scholarships  —  was  naturally  succeeded  by  his 

228 


CAIUS  COLLEGE 

elevation  to  the  Mastership  (January  24,  1559) 
— a  dignity  which  he  accepted  with  reluctance, 
and  the  emoluments  of  which  he  systematically 
declined.  These  he  generously  expended  on  new 
buildings,  of  which  he  laid  the  first  stone  on  the 
west  side  of  the  court  that  was  afterwards  called 
Caius  Court,  5th  of  May  1565,  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  His  object  in  founding  his  college 
afresh  was  the  promotion  of  sound  learning. 
The  inscription  on  the  foundation-stone  summed 
up  these  intentions  in  four  significant  words : 
'  Johannes  Caius  posuit  sapientice,'  with  a  solemn 
prayer  that  all  who  dwelt  therein  might  be 
virtuous,  learned,  and  patriotic.  It  may  at  first 
sight  appear  strange  that  he  should  have  allowed 
six  years  to  elapse  between  his  acceptance  of  the 
Mastership  and  the  commencement  of  the  build- 
ings. Probably  the  intervening  period  was  spent 
in  acquiring  the  site,  and  in  storing  up  materials. 
This  forethought  will  account  for  the  short  time 
occupied  in  the  actual  construction,  for  the  last 
stone  is  stated  by  himself  in  his  Annals,  of  which 
the  manuscript  is  preserved  in  the  college,  to 
have  been  laid  on  the  first  day  of  September, 
just  four  months  after  the  work  had  been  begun. 
The  eastern  side  of  the  quadrangle  was  taken  in 

229 


CAMBRIDGE 

hand  soon  afterwards,  and  probably  finished 
with  equal  rapidity,  but  its  progress  is  not  so 
minutely  recorded. 

The  design  of  the  buildings  erected  by  Dr. 
Caius  is  stated,  according  to  college  tradition,  to 
have  been  brought  by  him  from  Padua.  The 
agreeable  notion,  however,  that  while  he  was 
living  abroad  he  was  thinking  of  his  college  and 
planning  its  extension,  is  unsupported  by  any 
evidence  whatever.  He  was  at  Padua,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  1541,  eighteen  years  before  he  was 
made  master  of  the  college,  and  twenty-four 
years  before  he  began  to  build.  How  could  he 
have  '  so  forecast  the  years '  as  to  imagine  his 
future  elevation  to  wealth  and  position  ?  Again, 
the  design  is  not  Italian,  either  in  conception  or 
in  style.  The  buildings  of  the  •  University  at 
Padua,  which  he  might  have  thought  of  imitat- 
ing, and  with  which  he  must,  of  course,  have 
been  familiar,  for  they  were  built  by  Sansovino 
or  Palladio  about  1493,  are  totally  different 
from  those  he  afterwards  erected.  They  are 
built  round  a  court,  in  a  heavy,  classical  style, 
with  a  profusion  of  shafts,  cornices,  and  battle- 
ments ;  whereas  the  design  of  Dr.  Caius,  as  our 
illustration  of  the  Gate    of   Virtue    shows,    is 

230 


CATK    OK    VlRTl'K. 

cAius  coi.i,i:(;i-:. 


CAIUS  COLLEGE 

thoroughly  Gothic  in  general  plan  and  outline, 
with  only  a  subtle  touch  of  the  Renaissance  here 
and  there  in  a  moulding  or  a  detail.  It  is  just 
possible  that  the  inscription  on  the  foundation- 
stone,  and  the  words  of  the  prayer  uttered  by 
Dr.  Caius  at  the  ceremony,  may  have  been  sug- 
gested by  the  inscription  on  the  entrance  to  the 
University  at  Padua,  in  which  the  same  thoughts 
are  expressed  :  *  Sic  ingredere  ut  te  ipso  quotidie 
doctior,  sic  egredere  ut  indies  patrice  Christiance- 
que  reipublicce  utilior  evadas.'  The  words  are 
difficult  to  translate  literally,  but  the  general 
sense  is,  '  So  enter  that  thou  mayest  become  daily 
more  learned  than  thou  hast  been ;  so  leave  that 
day  by  day  thou  mayest  become  more  useful  to 
thy  country  and  to  Chi'istendom.' 

The  arrangement  of  the  Caius  Court — two 
parallel  ranges  of  buildings  connected  on  the 
south  by  nothing  more  substantial  than  a  wall 
of  moderate  height  with  a  gate  in  the  centre — 
was  certainly  dictated  by  sanitary  considera- 
tions, and  therefore  was  probably  his  own,  for 
in  his  thirtieth  statute  he  directs  that  the  south 
side  is  never  to  be  enclosed,  'for  fear  the  air 
should  become  foul.'  The  symbolism  which 
governed  the  names  he  gave  to   the  gates  is 

231 


CAMBRIDGE 

English  of  the  days  of  Elizabeth  rather  than 
Italian.  The  college  was  to  be  entered  from  the 
outer  street  through  a  low  postern  called  the 
Gate  of  Humility.  In  this  spirit  the  student 
was  to  pass  along  a  stately  avenue  of  trees  till 
he  reached  the  lofty  and  beautiful  Gate  of 
Virtue.  This  is  sometimes  called  the  Gate  of 
Wisdom,  because  the  inscription  on  the  founda- 
tion-stone given  above  has  been  inscribed  in 
later  times  on  the  western  facade.  In  the 
spandrils  of  the  arch,  through  which  the  Caius 
Court  would  be  entered,  are  figures  of  angels, 
bearing  the  one  a  wreath  and  a  palm,  the  other 
a  cornucopia  and  a  purse :  emblems  of  the  gifts 
that  Virtue  has  in  store  for  those  who  follow 
her.  Lastly,  the  gate  by  which  the  college 
would  be  left  on  the  south  side  was  called  the 
'  Gate  of  Honour,'  because  it  led  to  the  schools 
in  which  University  honours  were  conferred. 

This  last,  the  design  of  which  is  directly 
attributed  to  Dr.  Caius  in  the  Annals  as  con- 
tinued by  his  successor  in  the  Mastership,  though 
not  built  until  after  his  death,  is  much  more 
classical  in  feeling  than  any  other  building  in 
the  college.  It  consists  of  a  square  mass,  en- 
riched with  fluted  columns  bearing  pediments, 

232 


CAIUS  COLLEGE 

above  which  rises  a  hexagonal  superstructure, 
originally  ornamented  with  numerous  shafts, 
pinnacles,  and  dials.  Unfortunately,  it  was  built 
of  very  perishable  stone,  and  the  delicate  carv- 
ings are  fast  crumbling  away.  Among  the  de- 
corations were  the  heraldic  cognisances  of  the 
Doctor,  the  quaint  symbolism  of  which  must  be 
stated  in  the  words  of  the  original  grant,  which 
confers  upon 

'John  Caius,  geutlemau,  and  his  posterite,  tlieis 
Armes  and  creste  with  thappertenances  as  here 
aftre  folio  with ;  that  is  to  say,  gold  semyed  with 
flowre  gentle,  in  the  myddle  of  the  clieyfe  sengrene 
resting  vppon  the  heades  of  ij  serpeutes  in  pale, 
their  tayles  knytt  together,  all  in  propre  color,  rest- 
inge  vjjpon  a  square  marble  stone  vert,  betwene 
theire  brestes  a  boke  sable,  garnyslied  gewles, 
buckles  gold,  and  to  his  crest  vpon  tlielme  a  dove 
argent,  bekyd,  and  membred  gewles,  holding  in  his 
beke  by  the  stalke  flowre  gentle  in  propre  colour, 
stalked  verte,  set  on  a  wreth  golde  and  gewles,  man- 
telled  gewles,  lyned  argent,  buttoned  golde. 

Of  this  elaborate  device  the  grant  vouchsafes 
the  following  explanation.  It  should  be  pre- 
mised that  *  sengrene '  is  house-leek,  and  '  flower 
gentle '  amaranth. 

'Betokening    by  the  boke  Lerning,  by  the   two 
2g  233 


CAMBRIDGE 

Serpentes  resting  vpon  the  square  Marble  Stone, 
Wisdome  with  grace  founded  and  stayed  vpon 
vertues  stable  stone ;  by  sengrene  and  flower  gentle 
Immortalite  that  neuer  shall  fade;  as  though  thus 
I  shulde  say,  Ex  prudentia  et  Uteris,  virtutis  petra 
firmatis,  immortalitas;  that  is  to  say.  By  wisdome 
and  lerning,  graffed  in  grace  and  vertue  men  come 
to  Immortality.' 

Dr.  Caius  died  July  29,  1573.  He  was  buried 
in  the  chapel,  under  an  elaborate  altar-tomb, 
about  which  he  had  himself  given  directions 
some  three  weeks  before  his  death.  The  two 
sentences  inscribed  on  it  by  his  friends,  *  Vivit 
post  funera  Virtus'  and  ^Fui  CaiiLS,'  are  simple 
and  beautiful.  In  1719  his  grave  was  opened, 
and  the  following  striking  description  was 
written  by  an  eye-witness : 

'This  brings  to  my  mind  what  I  saw  about  a.d. 
1719,  in  Caius  College  Chapel.  I  remember  that 
when  they  were  then  repairing  and  beautifying  that 
Chapel,  ye  workmen  had  broke  a  hole  -either  by 
accident  or  design  into  Dr.  Caius'  grave,  wch  was  a 
hollow  place  lin'd  with  brick  on  ye  north  side  of  ye 
Chapel  at  a  little  distance  from  his  monument  wch 
is  a  mural  one.  The  lid  of  ye  coffin  was  off  when  I 
look'd  in  with  a  candle  fixed  in  a  long  cleft  stick  wch 
ye  workmen  f  urnish'd  me  with  and  with  wch  I  cou'd 
survey  ye  sepulchre  very  easily.  The  sides  of  ye  coffin 

234. 


NORTH    SIDE   OF 

THE    GATE   OF    HONOUR, 

CAIUS    COLLEGE 


CAIUS  COLLEGE 

were  remaining,  tho'  in  a  disjoynted  and  rotten 
condition.  The  body  seem'd  to  have  been  a  very 
lusty  one,  and  ye  coffin  was  pretty  full  of  it;  the 
fflesh  was  of  a  yellowish  black  colour,  and  yielded  to 
ye  least  touch  of  ye  stick  and  fell  to  pieces.  The 
eyes  were  sunk  deep  into  their  sockets.  A  long  grey 
beard  much  like  that  wch  we  see  in  y«  picture  of  him, 
only  this  was  grown  very  rough  by  long  time ;  I 
think  it  was  then  about  145  years  from  ye  time  of  his 
death.  I  touch'd  his  beard  with  ye  stick  and  turn'd 
it  a  little  on  one  side ;  it  accordingly  lay  on  one  side, 
having  lost  all  manner  of  elasticity:  I  therefore 
brought  it  back  to  its  right  place  again.  The  sight 
occasion'd  in  me  serious  reflections,  and  I  went  away 
with  such  a  regard  as  I  thought  due  to  ye  memory 
of  so  considerable  a  mann  as  Dr.  Caius  had  been.' 

We  have  seen  how  earnest  Dr.  Caius  had  been 
in  imparting  medical  knowledge  to  others,  and 
how  firmly  he  held  to  the  importance  of  a  know- 
ledge of  anatomy  as  a  principle  of  medical  study. 
He  was  a  travelled  man,  too,  an  accomplish- 
ment rare  in  that  age,  and  his  intercourse  with 
foreign  men  of  science  might  have  imparted 
to  him  ideas  less  narrow  than  those  which  had 
hitherto  governed  the  colleges  of  Cambridge. 
Yet  his  statutes  are  in  no  way  an  improvement 
upon  those  of  his  predecessors.  He  makes  no 
attempt  to  found  a  scientific  college  on  broad 

235 


CAMBRIDGE 

principles,  the  main  lines  of  which  would  have 
been  suitable  to  all  time.  It  is  true  that  he 
obtained  a  royal  licence  to  allow  dissection  of 
the  human  body ;  but  his  statute  headed  '  Ana- 
tomia '  is  principally  occupied  with  directions 
about  burying  the  body  after  dissection  in  St. 
Michael's  Churchyard  with  due  reverence.  Of 
the  thirteen  Fellowships,  only  two  are  to  be 
held  by  medical  men ;  but  in  this  particular  he 
may  have  felt  himself  fettered  by  his  prede- 
cessor, Bishop  Bateman,  for  he  regarded  three 
only  of  the  Fellows  as  peculiarly  his  own.  His 
own  third  Fellow,  however,  is  to  be  a  theologian. 
The  study  of  medicine  is  inculcated  in  only  one 
statute,  and  in  it  no  better  system  is  suggested 
than  disputations  in  the  college  chapel ;  a  course 
which,  unless  very  careful  precautions  are  taken, 
and  preliminary  examinations  are  held,  may 
easily  degenerate  into  a  barren  recurrence  of 
question  and  answer,  such  as  Moli^re  has  so 
mercilessly  ridiculed  in  his  Malade  Imaginaire. 
The  rest  of  the  hundred  and  seven  chapters  into 
which  this  curious  code  is  divided  are  occupied 
with  minute  directions  for  regulating  the  daily 
life  of  the  students,  the  care  of  the  buildings, 
and  the  management  of  the  estates — matters 

236 


'>-    ...JlllJIi       tl'z^ 


QUEENS'  COLLEGE 

which  might  well  have  been  left  to  the  good 
sense  of  the  officers  of  the  college.  For  instance, 
it  is  gravely  prescribed  that  no  member  of  the 
college  is  to  enter  a  tavern  more  than  twice 
a  year ;  no  one  is  to  presume  to  set  foot  on  the 
leaden  roof  of  the  Gate  of  Virtue,  except  to 
repair  it ;  the  other  gates  are  to  be  opened  and 
shut  at  stated  hours ;  the  rents  of  the  estates 
are  never  to  be  diminished  or  increased,  and  so 
forth.  But  we  must  not  linger  any  longer  over 
this  interesting  subject,  for  we  have  something 
to  say  about  Queens'  College. 

The  history  of  the  foundation  has  been  already 
recounted.  The  buildings  of  the  principal  quad- 
rangle were  at  once  put  in  hand,  and  completed 
by  the  end  of  1448  or  the  beginning  of  1449. 
They  are  built  of  red  brick,  in  a  simple  style 
that  recalls  the  earlier  portions  of  Eton  College. 
The  quadrangle  is  entered  through  a  massive 
gateway  in  two  stories,  flanked  by  octagonal 
towers ;  and  there  are  square  towers  at  each 
external  angle.  The  east  and  south  sides  are 
occupied  by  rooms,  the  north  side  by  the  chapel 
and  library,  and  the  west  side  by  the  hall, 
kitchen,  and  other  offices.  This  portion  of  the 
college  retains  its  ancient  aspect  more  thoroughly 

237 


CAMBRIDGE 

than  any  other  in  the  University.  Beyond  the 
principal  court  is  a  smaller  one,  extending  to 
the  river.  A  picturesque  building  in  red  brick, 
probably  coeval  with  the  rest,  extends  along  the 
river  bank,  with  a  cloister  on  the  side  next  the 
court.  Cloisters  also  extend  along  the  north 
and  south  sides,  with  the  intention,  no  doubt, 
of  providing  a  passage  dry-shod  from  the  rest 
of  the  college  to  the  western  building.  Over  the 
north  cloister  is  the  wooden  gallery  of  the  Pre- 
sident's Lodge — a  singularly  beautiful  specimen 
of  that  usual  appendage  to  a  sixteenth-century 
house,  and  quite  unaltered.  There  are  three 
picturesque  oriels  on  either  side,  not  placed 
opposite  to  each  other,  as  a  modern  architect 
would  infallibly  have  constructed  them,  but 
alternately,  so  that  the  whole  space  within  is 
equally  well  lighted.  In  former  days  the  oriels 
rose  above  the  roof,  with  diminishing  stages 
of  lead- work,  crowned  by  iron  vanes  of  excellent 
design.  These  ornaments,  alas !  have  been 
swept  away;  and  it  was  only  by  accident  that 
the  gallery  itself  escaped  destruction,  for  in  the 
last  century  *  the  ingenious  Mr.  Essex '  was  em- 
ployed to  construct  what  was  then  called  a 
•  new  and  elegant '  building  along  the  west  front. 

238 


QUEENS'  COLLEGE 

He  began  at  the  south  angle,  and  having  erected 
a  monstrously  ugly  range  of  chambers  along 
Silver  Street,  proceeded  to  do  likewise  along  the 
river-side.  He  pulled  down  some  thirty  feet 
of  the  old  work,  and  would  have  destroyed  the 
whole  had  funds  been  forthcoming.  But  fortu- 
nately they  ran  short,  and  the  Lodge  was  saved. 
It  was  in  this  college  that  the  celebrated 
Erasmus  resided  during  part,  at  least,  of  the 
time  that  he  spent  in  Cambridge.  '  Queens'  Col- 
ledge,'  says  Fuller,  •  accounteth  it  no  small  credit 
thereunto  that  Erasmus  (who  no  doubt  might 
have  picM  and  chose  what  House  he  pleased) 
prefer7'ed  this  for  the  place  of  his  study  for  some 
years  in  Cambridge.  Either  invited  thither 
with  the  fame  of  the  learning  and  love  of  his 
friend  Bishop  Fisher,  then  Master  thereof,  or 
allured  with  the  situation  of  this  CoUedge  so 
near  the  River  (as  Rotterdam  his  native  place  to 
the  Sea),  with  pleasant  walks  thereabouts.'  His 
memory  is  perpetuated  by  a  walk  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Cam  called  Eramus'  Walk;  and  his 
study,  high  up  in  the  tower  at  the  south-west 
angle  of  the  court,  is  still  pointed  out.  The 
following  curious  passage,  written,  it  is  true, 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half  afterwards,  but  by  a 

239 


CAMBRIDGE 

Fellow  of  the  College  who  could  hardly  have 
been  misinformed,  pleasantly  describes  the  tra- 
ditional belief : 

*  The  staires  which  rise  up  to  his  studie  at  Queens' 
College  in  Cambr.  doe  bring  into  two  of  the  fairest 
chambers  in  the  ancient  building ;  in  one  of  them, 
which  lookes  into  the  hall  and  chief  court,  the 
Vice-President  kept  in  my  time;  in  that  adjoyn- 
ing,  it  was  my  fortune  to  be,  when  fellow.  The 
chambers  over  are  good  lodgeing  roomes;  and  to 
one  of  them  is  a  square  turret  adjoyning,  in  the 
upper  part  of  which  is  the  study  of  Erasmus ;  and 
over  it  leads.  To  that  belongs  the  best  prospect 
about  the  colledge,  viz.  upon  the  river,  into  the 
corne-fields,  and  countrey  adjoyning.  So  y*^  it  might 
very  well  consist  with  the  civility  of  the  House  to 
that  great  man  (who  was  no  fellow,  and  I  think 
stayed  not  long  there)  to  let  him  have  that  study. 
His  sleeping-rome  might  be  either  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent's, or,  to  be  neer  to  him,  the  next.  The  room  for 
his  servitor  that  above  it,  and  through  it  he  might 
goe  to  that  studie,  which  for  the  height  and  neat- 
nesse  and  prospect,  might  easily  take  his  phancy.' 

There  are  some  amusing  allusions  in  his  letters 
to  his  discomforts,  which  appear  to  have  been 
much  the  same  as  those  commonly  experienced 
by  foreigners  in  a  strange  country.  The  climate, 
the  drink,  the  encouragement  he  met  with  in 

240 


THK  i,od(;e  ok 

OUEKNS"    COLLEGE. 


QUEENS'  COLLEGE 

his  lectures,  are  all  subjects  for  grumbling.  •  I 
cannot  go  out  of  doors  for  the  plague,'  he  says, 
writing  to  a  friend  in  1510;  *I  am  beset  with 
thieves,  and  the  wine  is  no  better  than  vinegar.' 
Again,  in  August  1511,  we  read,  *I  shall  stay 
some  days  at  least  in  this  college.  I  have  not 
as  yet  submitted  myself  to  an  audience,  for  I  am 
anxious  to  take  care  of  my  health  first.  I  do 
not  like  the  ale  of  this  place  at  all,  nor  are 
the  wines  particularly  palatable.  If  you  could 
manage  to  send  me  a  cask  of  Greek  wine,  the 
very  best  that  can  be  bought,  you  would  be 
doing  your  friend  a  great  kindness,  but  mind 
that  it  be  not  too  sweet.'  The  wine  evidently 
came,  and  was  of  the  proper  quality,  for  in 
October  following  he  writes,  '  I  am  sending  you 
back  your  cask,  which  I  have  kept  by  me  longer 
than  I  otherwise  should  have  done,  that  I  might 
enjoy  the  perfume  at  least  of  Greek  wine.  My 
expenses  here  are  monstrous,  and  not  a  farthing 
to  be  gained.  I  have  been  here  not  quite  five 
months,  and  yet  have  spent  sixty  nobles ;  while 
certain  members  of  my  class  have  presented  me 
with  just  a  single  one,  which  they  had  much 
difficulty  in  persuading  me  to  accept.'  Notwith- 
standing all  these  drawbacks,  however,  which 
2h  241 


CAMBRIDGE 

are  very  likely  exaggerated  for  his  friend's 
amusement,  he  stayed  at  Cambridge  for  up- 
wards of  seven  years,  giving  lectures  in  Greek 
and  Theology. 

In  the  next  place  we  must  say  a  few  words 
about  Emmanuel  College,  of  which  we  have 
figured  a  small  portion.  It  was  mentioned  in  a 
previous  article  that  the  site  chosen  for  it  was 
that  of  the  Convent  of  the  Black  Friars,  or 
Friars  Preachers.  They  were  dispossessed  by 
King  Henry  viii. ;  but  for  some  reason,  now 
unknown,  their  buildings  escaped  the  destruc- 
tion that  fell  on  those  of  the  Carmelites  and 
Franciscans;  and  when  Sir  Walter  Mildmay 
obtained  possession  of  them  forty  years  after- 
wards, his  architect,  Ralph  Symons,  was  able  to 
adapt  some  of  them  to  collegiate  purposes  with 
hardly  any  alteration.  This  College,  and  Sidney 
Sussex  College,  founded  in  1594  by  the  will  of 
the  Lady  Francis  Sidney,  Countess  of  Sussex, 
on  the  site  of  the  Franciscan  house,  are  the  first 
Protestant  foundations.  Sir  "Walter  was  himself 
a  staunch  Puritan,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  is  re- 
ported to  have  said  to  him,  '  Sir  Walter,  I  hear 
that  you  have  erected  a  Puritan  foundation.' 
•  No,  Madam,'  he  replied ;  '  far  be  it  from  me  to 

242 


v.  O  _i 

<  ^  a 

i  %  '% 

•<  ~  ^ 


EMMANUEL  COLLEGE 

countenance  anything  contrary  to  your  estab- 
lished laws;  but  I  have  set  an  acorn,  which, 
when  it  becomes  an  oak,  God  alone  knows  what 
will  be  the  fruit  thereof.'  The  charter  granted 
to  him  by  the  Queen  is  dated  11th  of  January 
1584.  Therein  his  foundation  is  described  as  '  a 
College  of  Theology,  Science,  Philosophy,  and 
Literature,  for  the  extension  of  the  pure  Gospel 
of  Christ  our  only  Mediator,  to  the  honour  and 
glory  of  Almighty  God ' ;  and  in  the  preface  to 
his  Statutes  he  refers  to  the  '  schools  of  the 
prophets'  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  to 
the  learning  that  St.  Paul  had  acquired  at  the 
feet  of  Gamaliel,  and  to  the  incessant  watchings 
of  the  Levites  in  the  Temple,  as  parallels  to  the 
learning  that  should  be  stored  up,  and  the 
watchfulness  that  should  be  displayed,  in  order 
to  extirpate  Papistical  heresies  and  diffuse  the 
true  Gospel  of  Christianity.  The  principles  of 
the  founder  were  encouraged  so  well  by  his 
immediate  successors  that,  in  1629,  Archbishop 
Laud  described  Emmanuel  College  as  a  nursery 
of  Puritanism;  and  during  the  Commonwealth 
no  less  than  eleven  of  the  Heads  of  Colleges  im- 
posed by  those  in  authority  were  selected  from 
Emmanuel.     Evelyn,  who  visited  Cambridge  in 

243 


CAMBRIDGE 

1654,  speaks  of  it  as  '  that  zealous  house ' ;  and 
in  later  days  it  is  referred  to  as  '  the  pure  house 
of  Emmanuel.' 

The  view  of  Emmanuel  College  in  Loggan's 
work  shows  buildings  so  different  from  the 
present  ones,  that  were  it  not  for  the  chapel  it 
would  be  difficult  to  recognise  their  identity.  In 
1688  the  entrance  to  the  College  was  in  Em- 
manuel Street,  through  a  small  court,  open 
to  the  north.  From  this  the  principal  court  was 
entered,  of  which  the  west  side,  where  the  gate 
of  entrance  now  is,  was  occupied  by  chambers. 
It  is  probable  that  these  were  contrived  out  of 
part  of  the  conventual  buildings.  The  Hall,  as 
now,  was  on  the  north  side,  and  a  range  of 
chambers,  called  the  *  Founder's  Range,'  was  on 
the  south  side.  The  building  called  *  The  Brick 
Building,'  at  right  angles  to  this — of  which  a 
small  portion  is  shown  in  our  illustration — was 
begun  in  1633,  and  is  an  excellent  specimen 
of  the  style  of  that  period.  The  chapel,  with  the 
cloisters,  by  which  it  is  joined  to  the  north  and 
south  sides  of  the  quadrangle,  is  due  to  the 
energy  of  Dr.  Sancroft,  Master  from  1662  to 
1665,  who  afterwards,  when  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, became  famous  as  the  author  of  the 

244 


THE  SENATE 
HOUSE  AND 
UNIVERSITY    LIBRARY. 


EMMANUEL  COLLEGE 

petition  of  the  seven  Bishops  against  the  De- 
claration of  King  James  ii.  The  architect  was 
Sir  Christopher  Wren.  He  evidently  borrowed 
the  general  idea  of  the  composition  from  Peter- 
house.  The  space  over  the  cloister,  however, 
serves  at  Emmanuel  the  double  purpose  of  a 
passage  for  the  Master  to  the  chapel,  and  of  a 
picture-gallery  in  connection  with  the  Lodge — 
an  original  feature,  due,  in  all  probability,  to 
the  ingenuity  of  Wren.  In  his  first  design  he 
intended  to  build  the  chapel  and  cloister  in  red 
brick,  with  stone  dressings,  the  effect  of  which 
would  have  been  far  more  picturesque  than  the 
uniform  stonework  which  was  substituted  for  it. 
The  reasons  for  the  alteration  have  not  been 
recorded.  The  '  Founder's  Range '  was  rebuilt  in 
1719,  and  in  1769  the  west  front  was  changed  to 
its  present  appearance,  after  a  design  prepared 
by  Sir  James  Burrough  in  1752.  He  died  in  1764, 
and  the  execution  was  intrusted  to  Essex.  A 
contemporary  records  that  the  plan  'was  de- 
parted from  in-  almost  every  instance,  and  in 
some  considerably  improv'd.' 

Under  the  hospitable  guidance  of  *  rare  Richard 
Farmer,'  Master  from  1775  to  1797,  the  Combina- 
tion Room,  called  Emmanuel  Parlour,  acquired 

245 


CAMBRIDGE 

a  great  reputation  for  geniality  and  good-fellow- 
ship. It  is  said  to  have  been  open  every  even- 
ing •  to  those  vrho  loved  pipes  and  tobacco  and 
cheerful  conversation.'  Dr.  Farmer  was  not 
merely  a  Shakesperean  critic,  he  delighted  in 
the  stage  as  a  spectator,  and  during  the  period 
of  Sturbridge  fair  went  regularly  every  even- 
ing to  the  theatre  there  with  his  friends.  Those 
who  disapproved  of  this  dramatic  enthusiasm 
nicknamed  them  *  The  Shakespeare  Gang/  They 
were  most  indulgent  critics,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  the  success  of  the  performance  by 
uniformly  applauding  everything  and  every- 
body. 

Our  woodcut  shows  the  fa<jade  of  the  Uni- 
versity Library,  of  which  we  have  already 
spoken. 


246 


XI 

JESUS  COLLEGE 

About  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  a 
Benedictine  sisterhood,  consisting  of  a  prioress 
and  eleven  nuns,  established  themselves  in  the 
middle  of  the  Greencroft — a  piece  of  common 
ground,  which  we  described  in  our  imaginary 
survey  of  Cambridge  as  extending  from  the 
eastern  limits  of  the  town  along  the  riverside 
as  far  as  the  village  of  Barnwell.  This  site 
they  obtained  by  the  favour  of  Malcolm  iv., 
King  of  Scotland,  in  virtue  of  his  rights  as  Earl 
of  Huntingdon.  Very  little  is  known  of  the 
history  of  the  convent.  The  sisterhood  seems 
to  have  been  regarded  with  special  favour  by 
the  ecclesiastical  magnates  of  those  days;  for 
we  find  privileges  granted  to  them,  not  only 
by  the  Bishops  of  Ely,  who  were  patrons  of 
the  House  in  virtue  of  their  office,  but  by  the 

247 


CAMBRIDGE 

Bishop  of  Norwich,  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and 
even  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  In  the 
thirteenth  century,  when  insurance  offices  were 
unknown,  the  damages  done  by  a  fire  or  storm 
had  to  be  repaired  by  voluntary  contributions. 
On  such  occasions  episcopal  favour  (if  it  could 
only  be  obtained)  applied  a  powerful  spur  to 
the  charity  of  the  faithful,  who,  in  days  when 
news  travelled  slowly,  might  otherwise  have 
never  heard  of  the  disaster,  still  less  have  con- 
tributed to  repair  it.  A  few  facts  have  come 
down  to  us,  supported  by  documentary  evidence 
still  existing  in  the  Treasury  of  Jesus  College, 
which  show  how  valuable  ecclesiastical  favours 
must  have  been  to  the  Nuns  of  Greencroft.  In 
1254  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  grants  a  relaxation 
of  twenty-five  days'  penance  to  all  benefactors 
to  the  nunnery,  whether  for  the  sustenance  of 
the  nuns,  or  the  building  of  their  church.  In 
1268  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  gives  them  leave  to 
collect  alms  for  the  same  purpose.  In  1277  the 
Bishop  of  Norwich  issues  a  circular  letter  to 
the  clergy  and  laity  of  his  diocese,  calling  upon 
them  to  afford  any  assistance  to  the  nuns,  who 
were  in  difficulties  from  the  sudden  ruin  of 
their  bell-tower.     In    1313   the   Archdeacon  of 

248 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

Ely  recommends  them  as  persons  deserving  of 
charity,  because  they  have  lost  their  entire  pro- 
perty {bona  omnia)  by  a  fire ;  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  the  Bishop  of  Ely  confirms  certain 
indulgences  granted  to  them  by  his  brother 
bishops  for  the  same  object.  In  1376  the  Bishop 
of  Ely  interferes  again,  and  grants  an  indul- 
gence of  forty  days — i.e.  a  remission  of  penance 
imposed  for  misdeeds  to  be  valid  for  that  period 
— to  all  who  shall  contribute  to  a  fund  for 
making  good  their  losses  by  another  fire.  Lastly, 
in  1390,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  grants 
them  a  similar  indulgence,  part  of  their  habita- 
tion having  been  blown  down  by  a  storm.  Be- 
sides these  special  contributions,  their  annual 
revenue  derived  from  houses  and  lands,  chiefly 
in  Cambridge,  became  extensive,  and  they  were 
enabled  to  erect  a  magnificent  church,  the  relics 
of  which  may  still  be  seen  in  the  chapel  of 
Jesus  College.  In  all  monasteries  the  church 
invariably  exceeded  the  other  buildings  in  size 
and  splendour;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  refectory,  dor- 
mitory, cloister,  etc.,  would  be  erected  in  a  style 
that  would  not  offer  too  marked  a  contrast  to 
that  of  the  church.  At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
2 1  249 


CAMBRIDGE 

century,  John  Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely,  obtained 
leave  from  Henry  vii.  to  suppress  the  nunnery, 
and  to  replace  it  by  Jesus  College,  conferring 
on  the  new  corporation  the  revenues,  as  well 
as  the  site  and  buildings,  of  the  sisterhood.  If 
we  are  to  believe  the  account  given  in  the  pre- 
amble to  the  Charter,  which  is  dated  June  12, 
1497,  this  act  was  occasioned  by  the  miscon- 
duct of  the  nuns.  This,  however,  is  at  least 
doubtful.  At  that  time  suppression  of  monas- 
teries had  come  within  the  range  of  practical 
politics,  as  we  say  nowadays,  and  when  the 
extinction  of  a  given  House  had  been  decided 
on,  it  was  obviously  advisable  to  silence  popular 
clamour  by  making  the  case  against  it  as  strong 
as  possible.  A  second  supression  of  a  religious 
house  at  Cambridge — that,  namely,  of  St.  John's 
Hospital — took  place  twelve  years  afterwards, 
and  the  reasons,  as  stated  in  the  charter  of 
St.  John's  College,  are  so  curiously  similar  to 
those  given  in  the  case  of  the  nuns  of  St.  Rhade- 
gund,  that  it  will  be  interesting  to  compare 
them.  We  have  translated  them,  and  print 
them  side  by  side. 

The  House  or  Priory  of       The  House  or  Priory  of 
the  Nuns  of  St.  Rhade-    the  Brethren  of  St.  John 

250 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

giind,    its     lands,    tene-  the  Evangelist,  its  lands, 
ments,  rents,  possessions,  tenements,  rents,  posses- 
buildings,  as  well  as  its  sions,  buildings,  as  well 
efPects,  furniture,  jewels,  as  its  effects,  furniture, 
and    other   ecclesiastical  jewels,  and   other  orna- 
ornaments,    piously   and  ments  of  the  church,  con- 
charitably  conferred  upon  f erred     upon     the     said 
the  said  house  or  priory  house  or  priory  in  former 
in    former    times,    have  times,  have  now  been  so 
now   been  so  grievously  grievously      dilapidated, 
dilapidated,     destroyed,  destroyed,  wasted,  alien- 
wasted,  alienated,  dimin-  ated,     diminished,     and 
ished,    and    made    away  made  away  with,  by  the 
with,    by    the    careless-  carelessness,  prodigality, 
ness,  improvidence,   and  improvidence,    and    dis- 
dissolute  conduct  of  the  solute    conduct    of    the 
prioress  and  nuns  of  the  prior,       masters,       and 
aforesaid  House  or  Priory,  brethren    of    the    afore- 
occasioned  by  the  neigh-  said    House    or    Priory; 
hood   of  the  University  and  the  brethren  them- 
of   Cambridge ;   and  the  selves  have  been  reduced 
nuns     themselves     have  to  such  want  and  poverty 
been    reduced    to    such  that  they  are  unable  to 
want   and  poverty  that  perform  Divine  Service, 
they  are  unable  in  any  or       their      accustomed 
way  to  perform   Divine  duties    whether    of    re- 
Service,    or   their  accus-  ligion,  mercy,  or   hospi- 
tomed    duties,    whether  tality,    according  to  the 
of    religion,    mercy,    or  original      ordinance     of 
hospitality,  according  to  their   founders,  or   even 

251 


CAMBRIDGE 


the  original  ordinance  of 
their  founders,  or  even 
to  maintain  themselves, 
inasmuch  as  their  num- 
ber has  now  been  re- 
duced to  two,  whereof 
one  has  entered  a  re- 
ligious house  elsewhere, 
and  the  other  is  leading 
a  life  of  sin. 


to  maintain  themselves, 
by  reason  of  their  poverty 
and  want  of  means  of 
support ;  inasmuch  as  for 
a  long  while  two  brethren 
only  have  been  main- 
tained in  the  aforesaid 
House,  and  these  are  in 
the  habit  of  straying 
abroad  in  all  directions 
beyond  the  precincts  of 
the  said  religious  House, 
to  the  grave  displeasure 
of  Almighty  God,  the 
discredit  of  their  Order, 
and  the  scandal  of  the 
Church. 


The  identity  of  the  charges  brought  against 
these  two  religious  bodies  cannot  be  due  to 
mere  accident;  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
believe  that  the  brethren  and  the  nuns  should 
have  fallen  into  precisely  the  same  delinquencies, 
or  that  the  number  left  in  the  House  should 
have  been  two  in  each  case.  It  might  almost  be 
conjectured  that  the  officials  who  drew  royal 
charters  kept  in  their  bureau  a  passage  ready- 
to  meet  the  case  of  the  suppression  of  a  re- 

252 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

ligious  house,  and  used  it  on  occasion,  with  the 
mere  alteration  of  name  and  place. 

A  few  parchment  rolls  detailing  the  receipts 
and  expenses  of  these  unfortunate  ladies  have 
been  preserved,  from  which  we  gain  some  in- 
sight into  the  way  in  which  they  spent  their 
money,  and  the  style  in  which  they  lived.  The 
first  of  these  is  for  1449-50 ;  and  certainly  lends 
no  support  to  the  episcopal  charges  of  poverty 
and  want  of  thrift.  The  receipts  may  be  roughly 
stated  at  £80,  equivalent  at  least  to  £1000  at 
the  present  day.  They  are  derived  from  the 
rents  of  farms  in  the  country  and  houses  in 
Cambridge;  receipts  for  dues  payable  in  the 
market,  and  profits  from  the  fair  which  the 
House  was  allowed  to  hold  on  the  Festival  of 
the  Assumption;  the  sale  of  corn  and  stores; 
tithes;  and  payments  from  the  Vicar  of  St. 
Clement's  Church. 

The  expenses  indicate  a  well-managed  and 
hospitable  community.  There  are  repairs  to 
their  own  buildings,  and  to  their  farms,  with 
the  purchase  of  stock  and  agricultural  imple- 
ments. A  horse  bought  at  the  fair  of  St.  John 
Baptist,  costs  9s.  4d. ;  but  another,  bought  of 
Richard  Baker,  of  Bumstede,  only  4s.     There 

253 


CAMBRIDGE 

are  many  charges  for  bleeding  and  shoeing  the 
horses;  the  shoes  and  nails  being  bought,  as 
usual,  in  gross,  and  laid  up  in  the  storehouse 
for  use.  Labour  on  the  farm  and  garden  occu- 
pies a  considerable  space.  We  meet  with  the 
yearly  wages  of  the  ploughman  and  the  shep- 
herd, charges  for  manure,  for  pruning  trees, 
fattening  pigs,  washing  and  shearing  sheep, 
etc.  The  wool  was  brought  to  the  Convent, 
and  there  utilised.  A  couple  of  women  are 
hired  to  spin  it;  and  Roger  Rede  of  Hynton 
is  paid  3s.  5d.  'for  weaving  77  ells  of  woollen 
cloth  for  the  livery  of  the  servants.'  Other 
persons  are  engaged  to  shear  it  and  full  it. 
Lastly,  William  Judde,  of  St.  Ives,  receives 
9s.  9d.  for  dyeing  it  green  and  blue.  '  Our  lady's 
servants,'  as  the  retinue  of  the  Prioress  is  called, 
must  have  made  a  brave  show  when  they 
donned  their  new  garments!  The  roughness 
which  we  are  too  apt  to  associate  with  medieval 
habits  seems  to  have  been  absent  from  the  Re- 
fectory, for  we  read  of  the  purchase  of  '  board- 
cloths '  and  table-napkins,  and  of  linen  bought 
for  the  Naprie,  probably  the  linen-closet.  The 
charges  for  the  Guest  Hall,  that  universal  ad- 
junct  to   a   medieval   monastery,   whether  for 

254 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

men  or  women,  indicate  a  somewhat  profuse 
hospitality.  In  addition  to  the  ordinary  charges 
for  beef,  pork,  mutton,  and  veal,  and  for  a  whole 
cow,  which  perhaps  was  bought  to  be  salted, 
there  is  a  special  charge  'for  bread,  ale,  beef, 
mutton,  lamb,  veal,  pork,  hens,  chickens,  eggs, 
butter,  and  fish,  fresh- water  and  sea,  bought  for 
eating  in  the  Guest  Hall,  as  set  forth  in  detail 
in  a  paper-book  examined  against  this  account, 
IIZ.  7s.  4:^cV  These  items,  amounting  to  almost 
one-seventh  of  the  entire  income  of  the  House, 
must  surely  refer  to  some  extraordinary  fes- 
tivity. Two  other  rolls  contain  similar  items. 
The  last  of  the  series,  that  for  1481-82,  just 
fifteen  years  before  the  suppression,  shows  a 
considerable  falling-off  from  the  former  pro- 
sperity of  the  House.  The  receipts  have  fallen 
to  £38,  15s.  8|^d. ;  a  condition  of  things  which 
lends  some  colour  to  Bishop  Alcock's  charges. 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  series  should 
be  so  broken.  AVere  it  complete  much  light 
would  be  thrown  on  that  supremely  interesting 
question — the  real  condition  of  the  Monasteries 
at  the  time  of  their  suppression. 

Jesus  College  is  approached  by  a  long  gravelled 
path  between  high  walls,  popularly  called  '  The 

255 


CAMBRIDGE 

Chimney.'  The  distance  of  the  church  from  the 
street,  about  seventy  yards,  was  probably  dic- 
tated by  a  wish  for  privacy ;  but  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  decide  why  the  nuns  placed  it  on  the 
south  side  of  their  buildings,  instead  of  on  the 
north,  having  regard  to  the  great  extent  of 
their  site.  It  is  evident  that  this  must  have 
been  the  arrangement  of  the  nunnery,  as  it  is 
of  the  college,  for,  otherwise,  Bishop  Alcock 
would  hardly  have  deviated  from  the  more 
usual  plan,  which  wisely  reserved  the  warmer 
south  side  of  the  quadrangle  for  the  rooms  in 
which  the  students  were  to  live.  The  church 
was  185  feet  long  within  the  walls.  It  was 
planned  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  with  a  central 
tower  and  transepts.  The  choir,  65  feet  long 
by  23  feet  broad,  had  chapels  on  its  north  and 
south  sides  for  about  half  its  length,  opening 
into  it  by  two  pier-arches  in  each  wall.  The 
transepts  are  24  feet  broad  and  28  feet  long. 
The  nave,  86  feet  long  and  24  feet  broad,  had 
originally  seven  pier-arches,  and  north  and 
south  aisles.  It  must  have  been,  as  Professor 
Willis  said,  'An  admirable  specimen  of  the 
architecture  of  its  period,  and  two  of  the  best 
preserved    remaining    portions,    the    series    of 

256 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

lancet-windows  on  the  north  and  south  sides  of 
the  eastern  limb,  and  the  arcade  that  ornaments 
the  inner  surface  of  the  tower-walls,  will  always 
attract  attention  for  the  beauty  of  their  com- 
position.' But  a  large  and  complex  church  was 
obviously  unsuited  to  the  requirements  of  a 
college,  and  under  the  direction  of  Bishop 
Alcock, '  the  side-aisles,  both  of  the  chancel  and 
the  nave,  were  entirely  removed,  the  pier-arches 
by  which  they  had  communicated  with  the  re- 
maining central  portion  of  the  building  were 
walled  up,  and  the  place  of  each  arch  was 
occupied  by  a  Perpendicular  window  of  the 
plainest  description.  The  walls  were  raised,  a 
flat  roof  was  substituted  for  the  high-pitched 
roof  of  the  original  structure,  large  Perpendi- 
cular windows  were  inserted  in  the  gables  of 
the  chancel  and  south  transept,  and  lastly,  two- 
thirds  of  the  nave  were  cut  off  from  the  church 
by  a  wall,  and  fitted  up  partly  as  a  Lodge  for 
the  Master,  partly  as  chambers  for  students. 

•As  for  the  portion  set  apart  for  the  chapel 
of  the  college,  the  changes  were  so  skilfully 
effected,  and  so  completely  concealed  by  plaster 
within  and  without,  that  all  trace  and  even 
knowledge  of  the  old  aisles  was  lost;  but  in 
2k  257 


CAMBRIDGE 

the  course  of  the  preparations  for  repairs  in 
1846,  the  removal  of  some  of  the  plaster  made 
known  the  fact  that  the  present  two  south 
windows  of  the  chancel  were  inserted  in  walls 
which  were  themselves  merely  the  fiUing-up 
of  a  pair  of  pier-arches,  and  that  these  arches, 
together  with  the  piers  upon  which  they  rested, 
and  the  responds  whence  they  sprang,  still 
existed  in  the  walls.  When  this  key  to  the 
secret  of  the  original  plan  of  the  church  had 
been  supplied,  it  was  resolved  to  push  the  in- 
quiry to  the  uttermost;  all  the  plaster  was 
stripped  off  the  inner  face  of  the  walls;  piers 
and  arches  were  brought  to  light  again  in  all 
directions ;  old  foundations  were  sought  for  on 
the  outside  of  the  building,  and  a  complete  and 
systematic  examination  of  the  plan  and  struc- 
ture of  the  original  church  was  set  on  foot, 
which  led  to  very  satisfactory  results.'  ^ 

It  would  lead  us  beyond  the  purpose  of  these 
descriptive  notes  to  enter  upon  a  detailed  de- 
scription of  the  church.    For  this  we  refer  our 


*  The  Architectural  History  of  the  University  of  Cavi- 
bridge.  By  the  late  Robert  Willis,  M.A.,  F.RS. :  edited 
by  John  Willis  Clark,  M.A.,  3  vols.  8vo,  1886.  Vol.  ii. 
p.  124. 

258 


M 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

readers  to  Professor  Willis  himself.  He  has 
shown  that  it  was  erected  between  1150  and 
1245,  so  that  the  style  varies  from  the  Norman 
of  the  north  transept  to  the  Early  English  of 
the  choir;  and  that  'during  that  period  the 
work  was  carried  on  at  several  different  times, 
and  with  changes  of  plan,  each  of  which  was 
on  a  more  enlarged  scale  of  dimensions  than 
its  predecessor,  and  showed  the  increased  and 
increasing  wealth  of  the  builders.'  Those  who 
visit  the  chapel  should  specially  note  the  piscina, 
a  lovely  example  in  the  Early  English  style. 
It  was  evidently  thought  to  be  something  out 
of  the  common,  even  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, for  it  was  copied  in  the  parish  church  of 
Histon  in  Cambridgeshire,  and  at  St.  John's 
Hospital. 

In  the  interval  between  Bishop  Alcock's  time 
and  the  restoration  of  which  Professor  Willis 
speaks,  the  chapel  had  met  with  the  usual 
treatment.  The  chancel  alone  was  used  for 
service  ;  a  wall,  pierced  with  a  door  in  the  Ionic 
style,  divided  it  off  from  the  nave ;  it  had  a  flat 
ceiling,  and  plain  woodwork,  the  whole  of  Al- 
cock's magnificent  stalls  having  been  turned  out 
— in  short,  as  the  taste  of  fifty  years   ago   ex- 

259 


CAMBRIDGE 

pressed  itself,  it  had  *an  air  of  great  elegance 
and  beauty.'  The  work  begun  in  1846  was  a 
real  restoration ;  for  the  destroyed  portions 
were  replaced,  so  far  as  funds,  and  the  needful 
arrangements  of  the  college,  would  allow.  It 
was  impossible  to  open  out  the  nave,  or  to  re- 
build its  aisles ;  but  the  north  aisle  of  the  choir 
was  rebuilt  on  the  old  foundations,  with  an 
organ-chamber  beyond ;  and  the  eastern  triplet 
was  reconstructed  from  fragments  found  in 
the  east  wall  which  Alcock  had  rebuilt.  This 
triplet  is  shown  in  our  view  of  the  chapel.  In 
a  subsequent  alteration  of  the  Master's  Lodge, 
fragments  of  a  west  door — the  existence  of  which 
Professor  Willis  had  always  suspected  —  were 
discovered,  but  this  feature  could  not  be  pre- 
served. It  indicates  that  part  of  the  church 
must  have  been  separated  off  by  screens  for 
public  use.  Probably  this  portion  was  called 
the  Church  of  St.  Rhadegund,  and  gave  origin 
to  the  belief  that  a  separate  parish  church  of 
that  name  once  existed. 

A  cloister  was  an  essential  part  of  all  monas- 
teries. We  commonly  conceive  the  monastic 
life  as  a  private  life.  It  would  be  nearer  the 
truth  to  call  it  a  public  life.     In  monasteries 

260 


mmmmiMinmiv!innii_miimfi:<Mim 


^  -'->^  J 


■A0>. 


-T-.   JldlMMlK. 


GATE   OK 
ENTRANCE, 
JESUS    COI.LECE 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

the  inmates  dined  together  in  the  Refectory, 
slept  together  in  the  dormitory,  worshipped 
together  in  the  church,  and  lived  together  in 
the  cloister.  There  they  kept  their  books,  either 
in  small  cupboards  cut  Out  of  the  thickness  of 
the  wall,  or  in  wooden  presses;  and  retired 
thither  for  study  after  dinner,  each  sitting  in 
his  •  carrell,'  as  it  was  called.  In  the  cloister, 
too,  the  novices  were  taught,  and  certain  cere- 
monies performed  on  stated  days.  There  also 
recreation  was  permitted,  and  exercise  was  taken. 
In  colleges  a  cloister  was  not  required,  except 
for  exercise  in  wet  weather;  and  therefore 
only  appears  occasionally,  as  a  separate  court 
subsidiary  to  the  main  quadrangle,  round  which 
were  grouped  the  buildings  primarily  required 
for  the  collegiate  life.  Jesus  College,  however, 
proves  its  monastic  origin  by  being  the  only 
college  in  either  University  in  which  the  principal 
quadrangle  is  cloistered.  This  cloister  now  rests 
on  open  arches,  but  originally  it  had  in  their 
place  windows  of  three  lights,  glazed,  as  shown 
in  Loggan's  print.  The  alteration  was  made  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  to  admit  more 
light  and  air.  Bishop  Alcock  grouped  the  usual 
buildings  required  for  a  college  round  the  cloister 

261 


CAMBRIDGE 

of  the  nuns,  which  he  increased  by  the  breadth 
of  the  north  aisle  of  the  church,  which  he 
pulled  down.  He  placed  the  Hall  on  the  north 
side,  the  Library  on  the  west  side,  and  the  pantry, 
larder,  kitchen,  etc.,  in  the  angle  between  these 
two  buildings.  The  Master's  Lodge  is  now  partly 
at  the  south  end  of  the  west  range,  partly  in  the 
altered  nave  of  the  chapel,  partly  in  the  short 
range  which  connects  the  principal  quadrangle 
with  the  gate  of  entrance.  This  beautiful  struc- 
ture, of  red  brick  with  stone  quoins,  is  ascribed 
to  Bishop  Alcock  on  internal  evidence  only. 
Originally  it  rose  above  the  buildings  to  the 
right  and  left  of  it  like  a  tower;  but,  since 
additional  floors  have  been  added  to  them,  its 
proportions  appear  somewhat  dwarfed.  Pro- 
fessor Willis'  description  of  its  distinctive 
features  is  worth  quotation : 

*  The  picturesque  red-brick  gateway-tower  of  Jesus 
College  (1497),  although  destitute  of  angle-turrets,  is 
yet  distinguished  from  the  ground  upwards  by  a 
slight  relief,  by  stone  quoins,  and  by  having  its 
string-courses  designedly  placed  at  different  levels 
from  those  of  the  chambers  on  each  side  of  it.  The 
general  disposition  of  the  ornamentation  of  its  arch 
and  of  the  wall  above  it  furnished  the  model  for  the 
more  elaborate  gate-houses  at  Christ's  College  and 

262 


&s* 


Mm. 


f  1  q.^ 


^    u:    o 
~    o    ^ 


JESUS  COLLEGE 

St.  John's  College.  The  ogee  hood-mould  rises  up- 
wards, and  the  stem  of  its  finial  terminates  under 
the  base  of  a  handsome  tabern&,cle  which  occupies 
the  centre  of  the  upper  stage,  with  a  window  on  each 
side  of  it.  Each  of  the  spandrel  spaces  contains  a 
shield,  and  a  larger  shield  is  to  be  found  in  the  tri- 
angular field  between  the  hood-mould  and  the  arch.' 

This  gate  gives  access  to  an  outer  court,  like 
the  curid  of  a  monastery.  On  the  west  side 
it  is  open,  but  has  ranges  of  buildings  on  the 
three  others :  on  the  north  side  a  range  built 
in  1638-41,  but  ingeniously  designed  so  as  to  har- 
monise exceedingly  well  with  the  earlier  build- 
ings ;  on  the  south  side  the  range  containing  the 
gate  of  entrance ;  and  on  the  east  side  the 
kitchen,  library,  etc.,  of  the  principal  quad- 
rangle. 

Of  late  years  the  great  increase  in  the  number 
of  students  at  Jesus  College  has  rendered  neces- 
sary a  corresponding  increase  of  accommodation. 
There  are  now  four  courts,  in  lieu  of  the  two 
which  formerly  sufficed  for  the  inmates.  A 
'  New  Court '  has  been  formed  beyond  the 
'  Outer  Court,'  by  building  a  range  of  chambers 
nearly  parallel  to  the  range  completed  in  1641. 
Some  modern  offices,  and  a  range  of  chambers 

263 


CAMBRIDGE 

built  in  1822,  form  the  east  side  of  this  court, 
which,  like  its  neighbour,  is  open  to  the  west. 
Subsequently  an  extensive  range  of  buildings 
was  erected  eastward  of  the  chapel,  so  as  to 
make  the  latter  building  a  more  prominent 
feature  of  the  college  than  it  had  been  hereto- 
fore. When  we  add  that  besides  these  structures 
two  houses  for  married  tutors  have  been  built, 
and  are  occupied,  we  shall  have  completed  our 
enumeration  of  the  changes  by  which  Jesus 
College  has  been  made  to  harmonise  with 
modern  ideas. 


264 


XII 

SOCIAL   LIFE  AT   CAMBRIDGE:    * 'TIS    SIXTY   YEARS 
SINCE ' 

In  our  previous  articles  we  have  given  a  series 
of  historical  notices  concerning  the  most  im- 
portant colleges.  These  have  related  chiefly  to 
the  buildings,  though  from  time  to  time  we  have 
had  occasion  to  mention  the  social  life  and  studies 
of  the  place.  We  now  propose  to  say  something 
more  about  this  department  of  University 
History ;  for  just  as  the  records  of  a  nation  are 
incomplete  when  they  treat  only  of  public  affairs, 
so  any  account  of  Cambridge  would  be  imperfect 
if  the  writer  did  not  try  to  describe  some  at 
least  of  the  changes  that  have  taken  place,  from 
time  to  time,  in  the  habits,  the  tastes,  and  the 
pursuits  of  the  academic  body.  The  Universities 
must  always  reflect  the  tastes  and  opinions  of 
the  country,  and  therefore  we  find  that  these 
changes  have  been  more  rapid  and  more  thorough 
2l  265 


CAMBRIDGE 

during  the  last  half -century  than  during  any- 
previous  period.  On  this  account  we  shall  not 
attempt  to  go  back  to  any  very  distant  date  in 
our  researches,  though  occasionally  it  will  be 
necessary  to  mention  the  habits  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  by  way  of  illustra- 
tion. It  will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to 
sketch  that  Cambridge  which  came  to  an  end 
with  the  introduction  of  railroads,  gas,  and  other 
innovations  peculiar  to  this  century ;  and,  in 
order  roughly  to  indicate  the  period  from  which 
we  start,  we  have  ventured  to  borrow  a  title 
from  the  author  of  Waverley. 

To  begin  with,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  town  of  Cambridge  was  very  different  then 
from  what  it  is  now  ;  indeed,  with  the  exception 
of  the  destruction  of  the  great  religious  houses, 
it  had  not  been  much  altered  during  the  four 
centuries  since  the  period  at  which  we  attempted 
to  sketch  its  aspect  in  our  first  chapter.  The 
country  round  about  it  was  quite  unenclosed, 
and  to  the  south  and  south-east  a  man  on  horse- 
back might  gallop  for  miles,  uninterrupted  by 
a  single  fence.  The  ground  where  the  now 
populous  •  New  Town '  stands  was  then  a  swamp, 
where  sportsmen  were  sure  of  snipe,  and  the 

266 


i'Khhetairos 
am)  basil  ei  a. 


From  ••The  liirds 
(1/  AiislofhaiKs 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

road  that  now  leads  to  the  railway  station  was 
an  elevated  cause;way,  with  this  marshy  ground 
to  the  right  of  it.  The  velvety  turf  of  Gog- 
magog  Hills  had  not  then  been  ploughed  up, 
and  a  bustard  was  still  occasionally  to  be  seen 
there.  The  streets  could  hardly  have  been  worse 
paved  than  they  are  at  present,  but  some  of 
them  were  much  narrower.  A  row  of  ancient 
houses  stood  where  the  lawn  in  front  of  King's 
College  now  is,  at  a  distance  varying  from  ten 
to  twenty  feet  in  advance  of  the  present  iron 
fence.  Trumpington  Street,  in  this  part  of  its 
course,  was  nowhere  more  than  twenty-five  feet 
wide,  and  as  the  upper  storeys  of  the  houses  pro- 
jected beyond  those  beneath  them,  it  used  to  be 
maintained,  graphically  rather  than  delicately, 
that  a  man  could  spit  across  it.  The  only  light 
used  at  night  in  the  streets  was  oil.  Only  one 
post  came  in  and  one  went  out  in  the  twenty- 
four  hours.  There  were  no  public  conveyances. 
If  a  gentleman  did  not  keep  his  own  carriage, 
he  must  walk.  Ladies  went  out  at  night  in 
sedan  chairs.  At  the  end  of  the  previous  cen- 
tury there  had  been  only  one  umbrella,  according 
to  Professor  Pryme;  and  this  was  kept  at  a 
shop  in  Bene't  Street,  and  let  out  by  the  hour. 

267 


CAMBRIDGE 

Passenger  traffic  was  by  coaches,  which  were 
numerous  and  well  appointed,  but  slow;  goods 
traffic  by  waggons,  or  by  barges  on  the  Cam, 
which  was  still,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  an  im- 
portant highway,  along  which  all  the  fuel- 
coals,  sedge,  and  turf — as  well  as  a  considerable 
quantity  of  provisions,  was  brought  to  the  town. 
A  long  frost,  therefore,  meant  death  by  cold, 
aggravated  by  hunger;  and  instances  are  on 
record  of  the  burning  of  every  article  of  furniture 
that  could  be  dispensed  with.  The  shops  were 
exceedingly  primitive.  Most  of  them  were  open, 
like  stalls,  and  closed  at  night  with  a  single  wide 
shutter  that  let  down,  and  was  used  to  display 
the  goods  on  during  the  day.  The  principal 
purchases  of  stores  of  all  kinds  were  made  at 
the  two  great  annual  fairs,  Midsummer  Fair  and 
Sturbridge  Fair.  The  latter  was  by  far  the 
more  important  of  the  two,  and  until  the  intro- 
duction of  railways  must  have  been  the  chief 
event  of  the  year,  not  only  in  Cambridge,  but 
on  the  whole  eastern  side  of  England.  The 
temporary  buildings  required  for  it  were  com- 
menced, by  custom,  on  the  24th  of  August  in 
each  year,  and  the  fair  itself  was  solemnly 
proclaimed   by  the  University  on  the   17th  of 

268 


PEITHETAIROS 
AND    PROMETHEUS. 


Frcin  "  The  Birds  " 
of  Aristopliaiii's. 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

September.  The  Vice-Chancellor,  attended  by 
the  Bedells,  Registrary,  Proctors,  and  other 
officers,  proceeded  to  the  Senate  House  at  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  where  the  Senior  Proctor 
provided  mulled  wine,  sherry,  and  cakes.  These 
delicacies  disposed  of,  the  company  proceeded  in 
carriages  to  the  fair,  where  the  formal  proclama- 
tion was  read  by  the  Registrary  in  three  different 
places.  The  company  then  alighted  at  one  of 
the  permanent  structures,  called  *  The  Tiled 
Booth,'  where  they  elbowed  their  way  through 
a  crowd  of  the  ordinary  customers  of  the  house 
to  an  upstairs  room,  called  'The  University 
Dining  Room.'  There  they  partook  of  oysters, 
ale,  and  porter.  Thus  fortified  they  walked  in 
one  of  the  streets  of  the  Fair,  called  •  Garlick 
Fair  Row,'  until  it  was  time  to  return  to  *  The 
Tiled  Booth'  for  dinner.  The  University  was 
very  unpopular  at  the  Fair,  and  it  seems  to  have 
been  usual  to  hustle  the  magnates,  and  to  make 
their  progress  to  their  dinner  as  difficult  as 
possible.  Mr.  Gunning,  Esquire  Bedell  from 
1789  to  1854,  describes  this  curious  entertain- 
ment, which  was  not  abolished  until  1842,  while 
the  proclamation  by  the  University  survived 
until  the  Award  Act  of  1856 : 

269 


CAMBRIDGE 

*  The  scene  which  presented  itself  on  entering  the 
dining-room  I  can  describe  most  accurately,  for  the 
dishes  and  their  arrangement  never  varied.  Before 
the  Vice-Chancellor  was  placed  a  large  dish  of  her- 
rings ;  then  followed  in  order  a  neck  of  pork  roasted, 
an  enormous  plum-pudding,  a  leg  of  pork  boiled, 
a  pease-pudding,  a  goose,  a  huge  apple-pie  and 
a  round  of  beef  in  the  centre.  On  the  other 
half  of  the  table  the  same  dishes  were  placed  in 
similar  order,  the  herrings  before  the  Senior  Proctor, 
who  sat  at  the  bottom.  From  thirty  to  forty  persons 
dined  there ;  and  although  the  wine  was  execrable, 
a  number  of  toasts  were  given,  and  mirth  and  good 
humour  prevailed  to  such  an  extent  as  is  seldom  to 
be  met  with  at  more  modern  and  more  refined  en- 
tertainments. At  about  half-past  six  the  dinner- 
party broke  up,  and,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
adjourned  to  the  theatre.' 

In  the  palmy  days  of  the  Fair  the  space  occu- 
pied by  it  was  about  half  a  mile  square,  divided 
into  streets,  which  were  distinguished  by  separate 
names,  such  as  '  Booksellers'  Row,'  *  Cooks'  Row,' 
•  Cheapside,'  *  The  Duddery,'  •  Garlick  Fair  Row,' 
etc.  In  each  of  these  some  special  trade  was 
represented,  as  in  Leipsic  Fair  at  the  present 
day.  The  amount  of  business  done  was  enor- 
mous. In  '  The  Duddery,'  where  woollen  stuffs 
were  sold,  £100,000  worth  of  goods  is  reported  to 

270 


//W 


v//a  J/v  ^^^'^^/'l^'/z/Hr^/^M 


''■"r:m'^ 


THE 
COCK. 


From  "  77; t'  Iliids  ' 
iV  Aiistof'haiics. 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

have  been  sold  in  less  than  a  week,  besides  the 
quantity  ordered  by  London  traders,  while  else- 
where wool  to  the  value  of  £50,000  or  £60,000 
was  disposed  of,  and  hops  to  an  equal  amount. 
The  Horse  Fair,  held  on  September  14th,  was 
always  the  most  crowded  day ;  but  the  numbers 
that  assembled  during  the  whole  three  weeks 
that  the  Fair  lasted  were  very  great.  Notwith- 
standing the  vast  concourse  of  people,  the  Fair 
is  described  to  have  been  like  '  a  well-governed 
city,'  where  order  was  carefully  and  successfully 
preserved.  There  was  a  Court  of  Justice,  of  the 
kind  called  '  Pie  Powder  Court '  elsewhere,  where 
the  Mayor  of  Cambridge,  or  his  deputy,  sat 
daily.  On  Sundays  Divine  service  was  held  in 
the  principal  open  space,  and  a  sermon  preached 
from  a  pulpit  placed  in  the  open  air,  by  the 
minister  of  Barnwell  parish,  or  by  some  one 
appointed  by  him.  In  addition  to  serious  busi- 
ness there  was,  of  course,  plenty  of  amusement. 
It  was  a  time  of  licensed  frolic,  into  which  all 
classes  entered  with  equal  zest  and  gaiety.  The 
dramatic  entertainments  were  managed  by  the 
company  of  the  Norwich  Theatre,  one  of  the  best 
provincial  houses,  and  were  well  attended ;  while 
the   wives  of  county  magnates,  of   University 

271 


CAMBRIDGE 

dignitaries,  and  even  of  Heads  of  Houses,  danced 
at  the  ball  which  was  given  on  some  particular 
evening  in  one  of  the  booths.  In  the  case  of 
Midsummer  Fair,  when  the  days  were  longer, 
ladies  used  to  get  up  tea-parties  with  the  view 
of  walking  in  the  Fair  afterwards. 

The  popularity  of  the  theatre  at  the  Fair  was 
evidently  very  great  in  the  last  century,  especi- 
ally with  members  of  the  University.  When  Mr. 
Gunning  was  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  Esquire 
Bedell,  in  September  1789,  he  mentions  that 
after  a  morning  spent  in  canvassing,  he  never 
failed  to  go  to  the  theatre  in  the  evening,  feeling 
sure  that  if  an  elector  had  arrived  at  Cambridge 
in  the  course  of  the  day,  he  should  meet  him 
there.  In  1808,  when  Professor  Sedgwick  was 
reading  with  pupils  at  Ditton,  a  village  on  the 
Cam,  not  far  below  Barnwell,  his  chief  amuse- 
ments seem  to  have  been  the  theatre;  and  his 
letters  tell  us  that  he  constantly  met  his  friends 
there.  In  later  times,  when  a  permanent  build- 
ing had  replaced  the  temporary  structure  at 
the  Fair,  it  maintained  its  popularity  until  rail- 
ways enabled  everybody  to  get  to  London. 
Most  of  the  celebrated  actors  of  the  present 
century  have  acted  on   that  miniature  stage ; 

272 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

and  the  last  three  weeks  of  the  Long  Vacation 
were  looked  forward  to  with  eagerness  by  the 
play-loving  portion  of  the  community.  So  late 
as  1834,  Mrs.  Frere,  wife  of  the  Master  of 
Downing,  bespoke  the  performance,  and  one  of 
her  party  has  recorded  in  his  diary  that  the 
pieces  selected  were  well  acted.  Thirty  years 
ago,  when  I  was  an  undergraduate,  the  theatre 
used  to  open  as  usual,  but  the  audience  was, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  thin.  Some  of  us  went 
regularly,  but  the  pieces  performed  usually 
belonged  to  what  is  so  oddly  called  the  legiti- 
mate drama,  and  I  am  afraid  that  we  received 
Ingomar,  Pizari-o,  Hamlet,  and  The  Stranger, 
with  derisive  merriment. 

In  early  times  undergraduates  lived  three 
and  four  together  in  a  room ;  and  even  Fellows 
could  not  always  have  a  room  to  themselves. 
The  arrangements  for  this  system  differed  in 
different  colleges,  and  it  would  be  beside  our 
present  purpose  to  go  into  the  matter  minutely. 
A  certain  amount  of  privacy  was  ensured  by  the 
contrivance  of  small  studies  (muscea),  separated 
off  by  a  lath-and-plaster  partition  from  the  rest 
of  the  room.  The  beds  were  in  the  undivided 
portion,  and  the  inmates  retired  into  these 
2m  273 


CAMBRIDGE 

closets  for  work.  As  colleges  increased  their 
buildings,  the  system  was  gradually  given  up, 
but  it  was  still  in  fashion  at  St.  John's  so  late 
as  1711,  as  is  seen  by  the  following  letter,  which 
puts  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  it 
very  forcibly.  The  writer  is  the  father  of 
Ambrose  Bonwicke,  who  had  entered  there 
as  pensioner  in  the  autumn  of  the  previous 
year.  Ambrose  had  written  to  say  that  he  had 
arranged  for  his  brother  Philip  to  share  his 
room  with  him,  and  wished  for  leave  to  intro- 
duce a  friend  also : 

'I  thank  you  and  your  tutor  for  the  promise  of 
the  chamber  for  Phil,  and  think  there  may  be  some 
conveniencies  in  admitting  a  third,  but  there  may 
also  be  some  inconveniencies  which  I  shall  lay  before 
you.  By  the  grace  of  God  this  lad  may  continue 
very  good,  and  your  society  may  contribute  towards 
it ;  but  should  it  be  othermse,  you  will  not  know 
how  to  get  clear  of  him  again.  Besides  if  he  be 
not  exactly  of  your  principles,  tho'  he  be  otherwise 
very  good,  'twill  be  very  inconvenient ;  and  you 
cannot  at  all  times  converse  so  freely  with  your 
brother,  as  'twill  be  necessary  you  should.  I  had 
hopes  that  your  brother  might  share  with  you  in 
Mr.  Roper's  favour,  and  fear  this  third  chum  may 
be  an  obstacle  to  that.  Another  thing  is,  if  Phil. 
should  have  the  small-pox,  there  will  be  no  room 

274 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

for  you  to  set  up  a  bed  for  that  time ;  and  you 
kuoAv  I  do  not  care  you  should  lye  with  any  other 
but  your  brother.  If  this  lad  has  never  had  that 
distemper,  he  may  unhappily  bring  the  infection 
into  your  chamber.  Besides,  I  should  not  like  him 
for  a  chvim  for  you,  if  his  dialect  be  ungenteel,  for 
fear  that  infection  should  reach  you,  as  well  as 
your  brother.  Yet  after  all,  I  have  a  great  concern 
for  so  hopeful  a  lad  as  you  describe  him,  and  wish 
you  might  enjoy  each  other's  society  in  the  day- 
time, tho'  you  sleep  not  together ;  neither  am  I 
against  that,  if  you  can  make  me  easy  as  to  the 
foregoing  particulars.' 

By  the  end  of  the  century,  however,  the 
present  plan  of  living  in  lodgings  in  the  town 
had  been  accepted,  though  not  without  many 
misgivings  and  attempts  to  stop  it,  or  to  limit 
it;  attempts  which  have  been  renewed  in  our 
own  time.  Let  us  hope  that  the  system,  which 
is  not  a  good  one,  may  one  day  be  superseded. 
In  the  days  when  rooms  were  shared,  the 
furniture  was  exceedingly  simple.     There  was 

♦  a  standing  bedstead '  for  the  Fellow,  supposing 
one  of  the  occupants  to  be  a  Master  of  Arts; 
a  'trundle-bed'  for  the  undergraduate,  which 
during    the    daytime    was    pushed    under   the 

*  standing-bed '  of  his  superior;  a  'leaden  laver 

275 


CAMBRIDGE 

with  a  troughe  or  spoute  to  wasshe  with ' ;  a 
table,  with  forms  or  stools,  not  chairs ;  and  a 
few  shelves  for  their  books  and  clothes.  In 
many  cases  the  walls  were  bare,  the  floors 
were  of  mud,  and  the  roofs  open  to  the  rafters. 
Subsequently  they  were  made  more  comfort- 
able, and  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  wainscot  was  generally  introduced, 
and  occasionally  hangings  of  '  green  say.'  These 
luxurious  additions  to  primitive  simplicity  were 
not,  however,  universal,  and  probably  marked 
the  presence  of  a  wealthy  or  luxurious  occupant. 
The  poet  Gray  is  said  to  have  been  'the  first, 
and  for  a  long  while  the  only  person  in  the 
University  who  made  his  rooms  look  pretty. 
He  took  care  that  his  windows  should  be  always 
full  of  mignonette  or  some  other  sweetly-scented 
plant,  and  he  was  famous  for  a  pair  of  huge 
Japanese  vases,  in  blue  and  white  china.'  Up 
to  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago  simplicity  was  the 
rule  and  not  the  exception ;  and  even  the 
fathers  of  the  present  generation  would  never 
have  dreamt  of  decking  out  their  apartments 
with  the  china  and  other  knick-knacks  which 
'  culture '  now  demands. 
Dress,  independently  of  cap  and  gown,  was 
276 


/    \ 


n 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

formerly  watched  by  the  authorities  with 
jealous  care,  and  deviations  from  established 
custom  summarily  checked.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  '  shorts  of  any  colour,  and  white 
stockings,  were  the  only  regular  academical 
dress,'  gaiters  being  forbidden.  In  1812  an  order 
was  made  by  the  Seniors  of  Trinity  and  St. 
John's  that  students  who  appeared  in  hall  or 
chapel  in  pantaloons  or  trousers  should  be  con- 
sidered as  absent.  So  late  as  1815,  Dr.  Mansel 
at  Trinity  threatened  to  put  an  undergraduate 
'out  of  commons' — that  is,  to  deprive  him  of 
the  means  of  obtaining  food  from  the  college 
— for  appearing  in  hall  in  trousers  instead  of 
breeches  and  gaiters.  Shoes  were  worn  on  the 
feet ;  boots  being  especially  forbidden.  The 
change  to  trousers  took  place  between  1820  and 
1830.  The  older  members  of  the  University 
resisted  the  innovation,  and  Dr.  Proctor,  Master 
of  St.  Catharine's,  who  did  not  die  till  1844,  wore 
knee-breeches,  when  in  full  dress,  to  the  last ; 
and  Dr.  Chapman,  Master  of  Caius,  who  died 
in  1852,  always  rode  in  breeches  and  top-boots. 
When  the  writer  was  an  undergraduate,  the 
Dean  at  Trinity  constantly  reproved  those  who 
wore  their  gowns  over  a  light-coloured  coat ; 

277 


CAMBRIDGE 

and  occasionally  such  unruly  persons  were  sent 
out  of  hall  to  change  the  offending  garment  for 
one  of  a  sober  grey  or  black.  Professor  Pryme 
gives  the  following  interesting  account  of  the 
customs  of  his  undergraduate  time  (1799-1803) 
in  these  matters  : 

'It  was  usual  for  the  undergraduates,  or  at  least 
the  more  particular  ones,  to  dress  daily  for  the 
dinner  in  hall  in  white  waistcoats  and  white  silk 
stockings,  and  there  were  persons  who  washed 
them  for  us,  as  things  too  special  for  a  common 
laundress.  There  were  two  or  three  undergraduates 
who  wore  powder.  The  rest  of  us  wore  our  hair 
curled.  It  was  thought  very  rustic  and  unfashion- 
able not  to  have  it  so.  Wigs  were  still  worn  by 
the  Dons  and  Heads,  with  two  or  three  exceptions. 
Cory,  the  Master  of  Emmanuel,  was,  I  have  heard, 
the  first  to  leave  his  off,  complaining  of  headache. 
Dr.  Barnes,  of  Peterhouse,  preserved  his  to  the  last. 
In  Mr.  Daniel  Sykes's  time,  which  was  twenty  years 
before  mine,  the  Senior  Fellows  of  Trinity  wore 
wigs,  and  he  was,  as  he  told  me  long  afterwards, 
concerned  in  a  practical  joke  concerning  them. 
There  was  a  barber's  shop  just  within  the  gate  of 
Trinity,  near  Bishop's  Hostel,  where  the  Fellows 
were  powdered  and  the  wigs  dressed.  It  existed 
even  in  my  time.  Sykes  and  some  others  bribed 
the  barber  one  Saturday  night,  when  he  had  the 
Sunday  wigs  to  dress,  to  give  them  up ;  and  getting 

278 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

out  upon  the  library  parapet  placed  them  on  the 
heads  of  the  four  statues  which  face  the  hall.  The 
next  day  the  Seniors  missing  their  best  wigs  were 
in  a  state  of  great  excitement,  and  obliged  to  go  to 
dinner  in  their  old  ones.  Coming  out  of  Hall  into 
Neville's  Court,  and  looking  up,  they  saw  them  on 
the  statues.  The  perpetrators  were  never  found 
out.' 

So  late  as  the  summer  of  1832,  Professor 
Pryme  himself  appeared  at  a  dinner-party  in  his 
own  house  in  nankeen  breeches,  tied  at  the 
knees  with  bunches  of  coloured  ribbons,  a  blue 
coat  with  brass  buttons,  and  a  buff  waistcoat. 

College  barbers  have  not  been  long  extinct. 
The  last  was  Robert  Bendall  of  Peterhouse, 
who  died  in  1879.  He  used  to  come  round  the 
college  in  the  morning,  wake  the  men  for 
chapel,  and  shave  them — the  lazy  ones  in  bed. 
Dr.  Woodham  of  Jesus,  who  did  not  take  his 
Master  of  Arts  degree  till  1842,  has  been  heard 
to  say  that  he  has  seen  a  hairdresser  curl  the 
Fellows'  hair  in  the  Combination  Room  before 
they  went  to  the  Bachelors'  Ball.  In  the  old 
statutes  of  Trinity  the  barber  was  on  the 
foundation,  like  the  cook.  Most  colleges  had 
a  barber's  shop.  At  King's,  each  Fellow  paid 
for  his  own  shaving,  but  that  of  the  Provost 

279 


CAMBRIDGE 

was  defrayed  by  the  college.  Until  the  popu- 
larity of  the  Volunteer  movement  cast  a  mili- 
tary air  over  civilian  manners,  the  cultivation  of 
beards  and  moustaches  was  not  allowed  by  the 
authorities.  Dr.  Whewell  set  his  face  steadily 
against  the  practice ;  and  so  late  as  1857  a 
scholar  of  Trinity,  who  was  afterwards  elected 
to  a  fellowship,  having  returned  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  October  term  with  these  two  orna- 
ments on  his  countenance,  was  requested  by 
the  Dean  to  remove  them.  He  was  a  good- 
looking  fellow,  and  deeply  deplored  the  loss  of 
so  important  an  addition  to  his  personal  attrac- 
tions. His  regrets  found  vent  in  song,  and 
he  published  a  new  Rape  of  the  Lock,  with 
which  the  Dean  was  so  much  amused,  that 
he  requested  a  copy,  and  a  version  in  Latin 
elegiacs.  A  few  of  the  lines  are  worth  quo- 
tation : 

'  Farewell  I  too  little  and  too  lately  worn  I 

Let  the  rude  breezes  bear  ye  where  they  list : 
For  this  defied  I  the  chill  dews  of  morn  ? 
In  rain  or  sunshine  ne'er  a  chapel  missed  ? 

'  Dean  !  is  thy  seat  so  lofty  that  its  snows 

Have  sunk  into  thy  heart  and  settled  there  ? 
Can  my  beard  mar  the  heaven  of  thy  repose  ? 
So  great  a  man,  and  such  a  little  hair ! ' 

280 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

The  hours  at  which  meals  have  been  taken 
at  different  periods  have  been  curiously  altered. 
To  begin  with  dinner.  In  1550,  dinner  in  hall 
was  at  ten  o'clock  and  supper  at  five.  This 
was  in  accordance  with  the  general  practice  of 
the  country,  where,  as  Holinshed  says,  'The 
nobilitie,  gentrie,  and  students  do  ordinarilie  go 
to  dinner  at  eleven  before  noon,  and  to  supper 
at  five,  or  between  five  and  six,  at  afternoone. 
The  merchants  dine  and  sup  seldome  before 
twelve  at  noon  and  six  at  night,  especiallie  in 
London.'  In  the  seventeenth  century  the  hours 
had  moved  on  to  eleven  and  six,  except  during 
Sturbridge  Fair,  when  supper  was  served  at 
nine ;  and  in  the  next  century  we  find  Oxford 
students  dining  at  twelve,  to  the  great  distress 
of  a  Conservative  of  that  day,  who  notes  in  his 
diary,  'When  laudable  old  customs  alter  'tis  a 
sign  learning  dwindles.'  However,  at  Cambridge 
the  hour  of  twelve  was  maintained  till  near  the 
end  of  the  century  in  all  the  colleges,  and  the 
students  afterwards  attended  regularly  at  the 
disputations  in  the  schools,  which  began  at  two. 
About  1785  the  hour  had  been  changed  to  one 
o'clock,  and  in  some  colleges  to  two  o'clock  in 
vacation.  Next  the  hour  became  three  o'clock, 
2n  281 


CAMBRIDGE 

upon  which  alteration  Dr.  Watson,  then  Regius 
Professor  of  Divinity,  writing  in  1818,  thus 
laments  himself: 

•  An  evil  custom  has,  within  these  few  years,  been 
introduced  into  the  University,  which  will  in  its 
consequences  destroy  our  superiority  over  Oxford, 
and  leave  our  scholastic  exercises  in  as  miserable  a 
state  as  theirs  have  long  been.  It  is  the  custom 
of  dining  late.  When  I  was  admitted  [November, 
1754],  and  for  many  years  after,  every  college  dined 
at  twelve  o'clock,  and  the  students  after  dinner 
flocked  to  the  philosophical  disputations  which 
began  at  two.  If  the  schools  either  of  philosophy 
or  divinity  should  ever  be  generally  destitute  of 
an  audience,  there  will  be  an  end  of  all  scholastic 
exertions.  I  remember  having  seen  the  divinity 
schools  (when  the  best  act — by  Coulthurst  and 
Milner,  Arcades  anibo—was  keeping  that  I  ever 
presided  at,  and  which  might  justly  be  called  a 
real  academic  entertainment),  filled  with  auditors 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom  ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
clock  struck  three,  a  number  of  Masters  of  Arts 
belonging  to  colleges  which  dined  at  three  slunk 
away  from  this  intellectual  feast ;  and  they  were 
followed,  as  might  have  been  expected,  by  many 
undergraduates.  I  say,  'as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected,' for  in  all  seminaries  of  education  relaxa- 
tion of  discipline  begins  with  the  seniors  of  the 
society.' 

282 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

It  is  always  amusing  to  get  the  same  event 
described  from  two  different  points  of  view,  and 
therefore  we  will  digress  for  a  moment  to  quote 
Gunning's  description  of  this  act,  at  which  he 
was  present : 

'  The  first  opponent  was  Mr.  Coulthurst,  of  Sidney 
(afterwards  Vicar  of  Halifax);  he  and  the  Respon- 
dent had  been  repeatedly  Moderators  and  Exam- 
iners, and  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  those 
offices  had  displayed  considerable  talent  and  attain- 
ments. In  other  respects  no  two  men  could  be  more 
dissimilar.  Milner  was  a  man  of  immense  size,  with 
stentorian  voice ;  Coulthurst  was  remarkably  small, 
with  an  extremely  low  but  distinct  voice.  Milner 
began  his  answer  before  the  other  had  propounded 
his  argument,  and  Coulthurst  continued  his  argu- 
ment after  it  had  been  answered.  In  point  of  fact, 
they  both  spoke  at  the  same  time,  and  neither  paid 
the  least  attention  to  what  the  other  said.  The 
Professor  two  or  three  times  made  an  ineffectual 
attempt  to  enforce  the  acknowledged  laws  of  dis- 
putation, but  they  took  no  notice  of  his  remarks, 
although  uttered  in  his  usual  solemn  and  dignified 
manner.  He  consequently  resumed  his  seat  in  de- 
spair, uttering  only  the  two  words,  ^Arcades  ambo,* 
and  they  were  allowed  to  finish  the  disputation  in 
their  own  way.' 

On  another  occasion  Dr.  Watson  drew  public 
283 


CAlMBRIDGE 

attention,  in  a  very  amusing  manner,  to  the 
real  reason  of  gentlemen  leaving  the  schools  in 
such  haste ;  namely,  in  order  to  reach  their 
college  hall  in  time  to  save  the  fine — a  bottle 
of  wine — that  was  then  the  invariable  penalty 
for  appearing  five  minutes  after  the  bell  had 
ceased  ringing.  The  Vice-Chancellor's  weekly 
dinner-parties  were  at  that  time  given  on 
Sundays,  at  half-past  one,  and  his  whole  com- 
pany went  with  him  to  St.  Mary's,  where  the 
sermon  then  began  at  three.  Early  in  the 
present  century  the  dinner-hour  advanced  to 
four  o'clock,  at  which  it  remained  until  a  few 
years  ago. 

When  dinner  was  early  there  was  supper  in 
the  hall — first  at  six  or  seven,  and  afterwards 
at  a  quarter  before  nine.  The  meal,  however, 
was  not  a  favourite  one,  as  undergraduates 
preferred  to  sup  in  their  own  rooms,  as  more 
sociable.  They  used  to  form  themselves  into 
parties,  and  each  man  ordered  the  dish  he 
fancied  to  be  carried  to  the  room  in  which  the 
entertainment  was  to  take  place.  The  host 
supplied  bread,  butter,  cheese,  and  beer,  with 
a  '  beaker '  or  large  teapot  full  of  punch,  which 
was  kept  on  the  hob.     Wine  was  not  allowed. 

284 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

As  these  parties  used  to  take  place  at  about 
eight  o'clock,  they  could  not  have  been  very- 
different  from  a  plain  dinner  at  the  present 
day. 

The  dinner  at  three  or  four  o'clock  was  a 
great  inducement,  especially  among  the  Fellows, 
and  in  winter,  to  cultivate  the  habits  of  deep 
drinking  that  were,  unfortunately,  so  common 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  At  the  meal 
itself  little  or  no  wine  was  taken,  but  at  its 
close  the  company  retired  to  the  Combination 
Room,  where  they  not  unfrequently  sat  till 
supper-time,  after  which  meal  those  who  were 
sober  enough  had  *  beakers '  in  their  own  rooms ; 
and  so  to  bed,  as  Mr.  Pepys  would  have  said. 
The  twelve  days  of  Christmas  were,  of  course, 
kept  in  a  specially  exuberant  fashion ;  songs, 
toasts,  and  sentiments,  were  given  in  Combi- 
nation Rooms,  and  I  have  heard  Professor 
Sedgwick  relate  how  fortunate  the  Fellows  of 
Trinity  once  thought  themselves  in  securing  the 
society  of  an  Irish  captain  during  that  season, 
whose  comic  humour  and  vocal  powers  were 
of  no  ordinary  kind.  The  practice  of  giving 
toasts  was  always  observed  on  feast-days  in 
Combination  Rooms,  and  extended  to  private 

285 


CAMBRIDGE 

wine-parties,  with  the  same  observances  that 
Sheridan  has  introduced  into  the  supper  scene 
in  The  School  for  Scandal.  •  The  host,'  says  Pro- 
fessor Pryme  in  his  Reminiscences,  'named  a 
Vice-President,  and  toasts  were  given.  First,  a 
lady  by  each  of  the  party,  then  a  gentleman, 
and  then  a  sentiment.  I  remember  one  of  those 
latter — "The  single  married,  and  the  married 
happy."  Some  of  them  were  puns,  and  some  not 
very  decorous.  Every  one  was  required  to  fill 
a  bumper  to  the  toasts  of  the  President,  the 
Vice-President,  and  his  own,'  How  formal  this 
system  must  have  been,  and  how  destructive  of 
all  rational  conversation !  At  the  parties  of 
some  of  the  'fastest'  men,  it  was  not  unusual 
to  break  the  feet  off  the  glasses  in  order  that 
bumpers  might  be  drunk  to  all  the  toasts ;  and 
so  long  as  a  single  bottle  of  wine  remained  in 
the  host's  cellar  his  friends  continued  to  drink, 
no  matter  how  late  the  hour  might  be.  Early 
in  the  present  century,  however,  a  resolute 
effort  was  made  by  a  few  popular  men  to  stop 
all  attempts  to  force  the  unwilling  to  drink,  to 
be  temperate  themselves,  to  separate  at  chapel 
time,  and  not  to  return  afterwards.  These 
rules  were    soon   accepted   generally,  and  up- 

286 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

roarious  wine-parties  ceased.  When  the  writer 
was  an  undergraduate  it  was  the  custom  to 
give  one  in  each  term,  to  which  a  man  asked 
his  entire  acquaintance,  quite  without  reference 
to  the  capacity  of  his  rooms  to  contain  them. 
Those  who  came  early  got  seats — those  who 
did  not  remained  standing — and  after  a  decent 
interval  went  away.  Sometimes — if  the  host 
'  kept '  in  lodgings — he  engaged  a  band  of  music. 
Itinerant  musicians  used  to  walk  the  streets, 
and  when  they  saw  that  a  wine-party  was 
going  on  anywhere,  sent  upstairs  to  offer  their 
services.  The  whole  affair  was  very  harmless, 
but  very  dull.  The  custom  has  died  a  natural 
death  of  late  years,  since  a  later  hour  for  the 
hall-dinner  has  been  accepted  in  most  colleges. 

A  journey  was  not  a  thing  to  be  lightly 
undertaken  sixty  years  since,  and  therefore  a 
great  many  of  the  Fellows,  especially  those 
whose  homes  were  in  distant  parts  of  England, 
resided  in  Cambridge  all  the  year  round.  For 
the  same  reason  visits  from  strangers  were  rare 
events.  General  society,  too,  could  scarcely  be 
said  to  exist  at  Cambridge  during  the  first 
quarter  of  the  century.  Hence  the  same  persons 
were  in  the  habit  of  meeting,  day  after  day; 

287 


CAMBRIDGE 

and,  as  a  natural  consequence,  treated  each 
other  with  a  rough-and-ready  familiarity.  Plain- 
ness of  speech,  to  an  extent  that  would  nowa- 
days shock  ears  polite,  characterised  ordinary 
conversation  ;  and  humorous  stories  were 
'Elizabethan'  in  their  phraseology.  Personal- 
ities, such  as  would  not  now  be  tolerated  any- 
where, were  freely  indulged  in ;  and  *  satires 
or  lampoons  on  particular  people,'  like  Sir 
Benjamin  Backbite's  '  little  productions,'  circu- 
lated in  the  same  manner,  '  by  giving  copies  in 
confidence  to  the  friends  of  the  parties.'  One 
of  the  principal  authors  in  this  style  was  Lort 
Mansel.  Many  of  his  epigrams,  though  he  was 
Master  of  Trinity,  and  Bishop  of  Bristol,  need 
the  decent  obscurity  of  a  learned  language ;  but 
one  or  two  may  be  quoted.  The  following  was 
on  the  marriage  of  the  Master  of  Corpus  Christi 
College  (then  called  Bene't  College),  a  very  thin 
man,  with  an  equally  thin  lady : 


'  Saint  Paul  has  declared,  that  persons  though  twain 
In  marriage  united  one  flesh  shall  remain  ; 
But  had  he  been  by  when,  like  Pharaoh's  kine  pairiDg, 
Dr.  Douglas  of  Benet  espoused  Miss  Mainwaring, 
The  Apostle,  methinks,  would  have  altered  his  tone. 
And  cried,  These  two  splinters  shall  make  but  one  bone ! ' 

288 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

The  following  satirised  the  conduct  of  Hinch- 
liffe,  Master  of  Trinity  and  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, who  put  a  wretchedly  bad  singer  into 
the  college  choir  because  he  had  a  vote  for 
Peterborough : 

•  A  singing-man  and  yet  not  sing  I 

How  justify  your  patron's  bounty  ? 
Forgive  me ;  you  mistake  the  thing  : 
My  voice  is  in  another  county! ' 

Mansel,  after  he  became  Master  of  Trinity, 
was  a  grand  personage,  full  of  his  own  im- 
portance, and  disdainful  to  those  whom  he 
regarded  as  his  inferiors.  It  is  to  him  that 
Byron  refers  in  his  Thoughts  suggested  by  a 
College  Examination : 

'  High  in  the  midst,  surrounded  by  his  peers, 
Magnus  his  ample  front  sublime  uprears  ; 
Placed  on  his  chair  of  state,  he  seems  a  god, 
While  Sophs  and  Freshmen  tremble  at  his  nod.' 

The  following  story  affords  a  good  illustration 
of  his  character.  Sir  Busick  Harwood,  Professor 
of  Anatomy,  between  whom  and  Mansel  there 
had  been  a  feud  of  long  standing,  gave  a  break- 
fast in  the  garden  of  his  house,  near  Emmanuel 
College.  Being  anxious  to  show  every  con- 
2o  289 


CAMBRIDGE 

sideration  to  the  great  man,  he  placed  a  young 
nobleman,  who  was  at  the  time  an  undergrad- 
uate of  Trinity,  at  the  same  table,  unconscious 
or  oblivious  of  the  fact,  that  it  was  sacrilege  to 
bring  a  human  being  so  low  in  the  social  scale 
of  the  University  'between  the  wind  and  his 
nobility.'  Before  breakfast  was  half  over,  Mansel 
got  up  suddenly,  ordered  his  carriage,  and  took 
his  leave.  Next  morning  Lady  Harwood  en- 
treated her  husband  to  go  to  Trinity  Lodge  and 
inquire  whether  he  was  ill,  or  whether  they  had 
unconsciously  offended  him  in  any  way.  Sir 
Busick,  most  unwillingly,  acceded  to  her  urgent 
solicitations.  He  found  Mansel  in  his  study, 
looking,  like  Mr.  Nupkins,  *  gloomily  grand,  and 
savagely  vexed.'  *  I  have  come,  my  Lord,  on  the 
part  of  myself  and  Lady  Harwood,  to  inquire 

'  began  the  Professor.      Before   he  could 

finish  his  sentence  Mansel  thundered  out,  'Sir 
Busick,  I  am  a  peer  of  the  realm,  God  knows 

how  unworthy '  '  God  knows,  and  so  do  I,' 

said  the  other,  and  vanished. 

In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
Tutor  and  Pupil  stood  in  a  close  and  even 
affectionate  relation  to  each  other.  We  have 
seen  that  occasionally  they  occupied  the  same 

290 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

chamber;  and  it  must  further  be  remembered 
that  the  number  of  students  proceeding  to 
degrees  was  infinitely  smaller  than  at  present, 
so  that  a  tutor  could  not  only  educate  all  his 
pupils,  but  understand  their  characters  by  per- 
sonal intercourse.  Sir  Symonds  d'Ewes,  who 
was  admitted  at  St.  John's  in  1618,  speaks 
frequently  in  his  diary  of  Mr.  Richard  Holds- 
worth,  whom  he  styles  '  my  loving  tutor,'  and 
records  his  gratitude  for  his  kindness  in  taking 
walks  with  him  and  treating  him  as  an  equal. 
By  degrees  those  relations  were  done  away 
with.  Various  reasons,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  following,  have  been  assigned  for  the 
change.  Older  men  ceased  to  share  rooms  with 
undergraduates;  increase  in  numbers  made  in- 
tercourse ceremonious  and  insincere;  politi- 
cal differences  brought  about  suspicion  and 
estrangement.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
cause,  the  broad  fact  remains  that  little  by 
little  a  spirit  of  donnishness  crept  into  the 
University,  and  soon  reigned  supreme  there. 
For  a  century  or  more  the  older  and  the  yoimger 
men  saw  very  little  of  each  other.  A  fellow- 
commoner  now  and  then  sought  the  society  of 
the  Fellows  whom  he  met  at  the  high  table; 

291 


CAMBRIDGE 

but  more  frequently  he  regretted  his  isolation 
from  the  men  of  his  own  age  and  standing,  and 
made  his  escape  as  soon  as  dinner  was  over. 
This  change  of  feeling  was  another  instance 
of  the  way  in  which  the  Universities  reflect  the 
tone  of  the  country.  In  the  last  century  a  man 
addressed  his  father  as  •  Sir,'  and,  so  far  as  we 
can  judge  from  contemporary  literature,  re- 
garded him  with  fear,  and  not  unfrequently 
with  dislike.  In  the  first  half  of  the  present 
century  the  new  literary  tastes  and  new  poli- 
tical opinions  that  became  prevalent  among 
young  men,  notwithstanding  the  almost  pro- 
verbial Toryism  of  young  Englishmen,  made 
the  breach  wider  still.  A  college  tutor,  popu- 
larly supposed  to  stand  towards  his  pupils  in 
the  relation  of  a  father,  came  to  know  so  little 
about  them,  that  the  following  anecdote  is  not 
incredible.  One  of  the  tutors  of  a  large  college 
desired  his  servant  to  go  and  invite  a  pupil, 
whom  he  had  not  seen  for  some  time,  to  take 
wine  with  him  after  hall.  'Mr.  So-and-so,  sir? 
He  died  three  terms  ago.*  'You  ought  to  tell 
me  when  my  pupils  die,'  replied  the  Don.  We 
do  not  vouch  for  the  literal  accuracy  of  this 
incident,   but    it   illustrates    the    estrangement 

292 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

that  existed  between  those  who  ought  to  have 
been  teachers  and  those  who  should  have  been 
taught.  It  is  almost  needless  to  add  that  un- 
ruliness  and  excess  became  the  rule,  rather  than 
the  exception ;  and  sixty  years  since  the  morality 
and  the  behaviour  of  the  young  men  at  the 
University  was  not  of  the  best.  The  famous — 
or  perhaps  we  should  rather  say  infamous — 
letter  of  Mr.  R.  M.  Beverley  to  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester  (then  Chancellor  of  the  University), 
published  in  1833,  had,  no  doubt,  a  germ  of  truth 
beneath  the  gross  exaggerations  and  wilful 
misrepresentations  with  which  it  is  filled.  The 
pamphlet  is  now  almost  forgotten,  or  remem- 
bered only  for  the  manly  and  crushing  reply 
that  it  elicited  from  Professor  Sedgwick  —  a 
denunciation  that  Junius  himself  might  not 
have  disdained  to  sign.  At  the  time  of  its 
publication,  however,  it  made  a  great  noise,  and 
the  numerous  replies  to  it  that  were  published 
are  a  proof  that  it  was  not  all  invention.  If 
a  malevolent  scribbler  were  to  write  such  an 
article  in  such  a  style  nowadays,  not  a  soul 
would  think  it  worth  his  while  to  answer  a 
word. 

Many  causes  have  contributed  to  bring  about 
293 


CAMBRIDGE 

a  better  state  of  things  since ;  and  nothing  could 
be  healthier  than  the  feeling  that  now  exists 
between  authorities  and  undergraduates.  As  an 
instance  of  the  resentment  that  was  sometimes 
excited  before  this  excellent  consummation  was 
effected,  we  will  refer  to  the  amusing  squabble 
about  attendance  at  chapel  at  Trinity  in  1838. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  Lent  Term  in  that 
year,  the  Master  and  Seniors  had  agreed  '  that 
all  Undergraduates,  Scholars,  and  Foundation 
Sizars,  do  attend  chapel  eight  times  at  least  in 
every  week,  that  is,  twice  on  Sunday  and  once 
on  every  other  day,'  on  pain  of  sundry  penalties; 
and  finally,  after  three  formal  admonitions  from 
Dean,  Tutor,  and  Master,  'the  offender  shall, 
ipso  facto,  be  removed  from  the  College,  either 
entirely  or  for  one  or  more  Terms.'  This  novel 
severity  was  met  by  a  singular  expedient.  A 
number  of  men  enrolled  themselves  as  *  The 
Society  fo7'  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Under- 
graduates ' ;  one  or  more  of  their  number  made 
a  point  of  attending  every  chapel  and  noted  the 
attendance  of  the  Fellows.  The  result  was 
published  in  a  weekly  paper,  which  was  cir- 
culated in  Cambridge,  and  even  in  London, 
where  it  found  its  way  into  the  Clubs  and  some 

294 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

of  the  newspapers.  The  remarks  that  these 
impudent  youngsters  appended  to  their  weekly 
records  are  very  entertaining.  On  February 
24th,  the  second  week  of  the  existence  of  the 
institution,  we  read : 

'The  Society,  though  gratified  to  find  that  their 
labours  have  had  the  effect  of  producing  more  regu- 
larity on  the  whole,  among  the  Fellows,  will  not 
relax  in  their  endeavours  to  promote  the  cause  of 
Religion.  Eight  Chapels  are  all  that  they  require  to 
be  kept,  and  should  any  Fellow,  through  illness,  be 
unable  to  attend,  on  sending  a  note  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Society,  he  Avill  be  excused.' 

On  March  3rd  it  is  announced  that : 

'  A  prize  for  general  regularity  and  good  behaviour 
when  in  Chapel  has  been  instituted  by  the  Society, 
who  are  as  anxious  to  reward  merit  as  they  are  to 
punish  immorality.  But,  whilst  they  thus  wish  to 
instil  into  the  minds  of  the  Fellows  those  Religious 
feelings  which,  owing  to  a  bad  education,  they  may 
possibly  be  without,  the  Society  most  distinctly 
declare  that  they  shall  not  be  guided  merely  by  an 
outward  show  of  religion.  It  is  not,  therefore, 
enough  to  go  merely  eight  times  a  week  to  Chapel, 
and  when  there  to  utter  the  responses  so  loud  as  to 
attract  attention,  or  otherwise  disturb  the  prayers 
of  Undergraduates.  Such  conduct  will  at  all  times 
be  severely  punished.    But  there  will  be  a  general 

295 


CAMBRIDGE 

examination  of  tlie  Fellows  at  the  end  of  each  term, 
when  they  will  be  classed  according  to  their  merits.' 

On  March  10th  the  following  note  appeared : 

'The  Society  regret  much  that  during  the  last 
week  great  laxity  has  prevailed  among  the  Fellows 
in  general  with  regard  to  their  attendance  in  Chapel. 
This  is  the  more  to  be  lamented,  as  they  had  been 
for  the  two  previous  weeks  so  much  more  regular 
than  tL8ual.  This  irregularity  cannot  proceed  from 
ill  health,  for  they  have  been  constantly  to  Hall, 
although  they  are  not  compelled  to  go  there  more 
than  FrvE  times  each  week.  The  Society,  however, 
still  hope  that  in  the  ensuing  week  they  will  be  able 
to  make  a  more  favourable  report  both  of  their 
attendance  in  Chapel  as  also  of  their  good  conduct 
when  there.  As  was  before  stated,  any  Fellow  who 
shall,  owing  to  any  wine-party,  or  other  sufficient 
reason,  be  prevented  from  attending,  will  be  excused 
on  sending  a  note  'previously  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Society,  and  his  absence  will  be  counted  as 
presence.' 

Then  they  drew  up  an  average  of  the  attend- 
ance of  each  Fellow  for  a  month,  in  a  tabular 
form,  with  the  average  for  each  of  the  four 
weeks  exactly  calculated.  Of  the  seventeen 
Fellows  one  has  zero  appended  to  his  name, 
another  '75,  and  even  the  three  tutors  do  not 
exceed  6|,  6,  and  4.    No  wonder  we  find  the  f  oot- 

296 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

note,  'Why  then  do  they  not  set  us  a  better 
example  ? '  This  observation  went  to  the  root 
of  the  whole  matter.  The  Fellows  did  not  so 
much  as  attempt  to  understand  the  Under- 
graduates. It  would  not  be  difficult  to  find 
individual  instances  of  friendship  and  sympathy ; 
but  as  a  general  rule  the  two  bodies  were 
opposing  forces  who  regarded  each  other  with 
suspicion  and  dislike.  'The  place  would  be 
agreeable  enough  to  live  in,  were  it  not  for  the 
Town  and  the  Undergraduates,'  said  a  learned 
Professor.  But  to  return  to  Trinity.  At  the 
end  of  the  sixth  week  the  Masters  and  Seniors 
altered  their  regulations,  and  announced  that 
they  would  be  content  with  six  chapels  in  each 
week  instead  of  eight.  The  undergraduates  on 
their  side  announced  that  the  '  Chapel  Lists ' 
would  be  discontinued ;  and  as  a  last  shot  at 
the  now  retreating  enemy,  they  published  a 
Class  List,  in  the  form  used  at  a  college  exami- 
nation, in  which  the  Fellows  were  divided  into 
four  classes,  according  to  their  number  of  at- 
tendances. Two  names  appear  in  italics  below 
the  last  class,  as  not  worthy  to  be  classed  at  all. 
The  first  class  contained  only  three  names: 
those  of  the  Senior  and  Junior  Dean,  and  of 
2p  297 


CAMBRIDGE 

Mr.  Perry,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Melbourne. 
The  former,  being  obliged  in  virtue  of  their 
office  to  attend  twice  daily,  were  held  to  be  dis- 
qualified for  the  prize  with  which  it  was  in- 
tended to  reward  the  most  regular  attendant  at 
chapel.  Mr.  Perry,  therefore,  who  had  attended 
sixty-six  times  during  the  period  of  examina- 
tion, received  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  handsomely 
bound,  and  the  following  note  was  appended  to 
the  last  publication  of  the  Society : 

'  The  Prize  Medal  for  regular  attendance  at  chapel, 
and  good  conduct  when  there,  has  been  awarded  to 
Mr.  Perry,  who  has  passed  an  examination  highly 
creditable  to  "  himself  and  family."  He  was  only  18 
marks  below  the  highest  number  which  he  could 
possibly  have  gained.  It  is,  therefore,  to  be  hoped 
Mr.  P.  will  be  more  regular  and  do  still  better  next 
term. 

'  iV^.J?.— With  respect  to  the  two  Gentlemen  who 
are  not  classed,  the  Secretary  need  hardly  say  that 
he  does  not  envy  them  their  feelings  on  the  present 
occasion.' 

Our  sketches  of  University  life  and  manners 
would  be  incomplete  without  some  reference  to 
the  Heads  of  Colleges.  In  an  earlier  chapter 
we  described  the  position  of  the  Head  before 
the  Reformation  when  he  was  in  reality,  and 

298 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

not  merely  in  name,  the  supreme  director  of  the 
body  corporate  over  which  he  presided.  After 
the  Reformation,  when  permission  to  marry  had 
been  conceded,  and  the  simple  Master's  chamber 
of  earlier  days  had  been  enlarged  into  a  com- 
fortable, not  to  say  luxurious,  Lodge,  the  Master 
of  necessity  lived  apart  from  the  Fellows  of  his 
college.  The  government  of  the  University  was, 
to  a  great  extent,  in  the  hands  of  the  Heads, 
who,  in  the  case  of  numerous  offices,  had  the 
right  of  nominating  two  candidates  for  election, 
of  whom  the  Senate  chose  one;  and,  more- 
over, as  assessors  to  the  Vice-Chancellor,  they 
acquired  by  custom  a  far  wider  power  than  had 
been  conceded  to  them  by  statute.  Nothing 
could  be  imagined  better  in  theory  than  that 
the  persons  who  represented  individual  colleges 
should  form  the  united  government  of  the  Uni- 
versity; and  so  long  as  the  Heads  associated 
with  the  Fellows  in  daily  intercourse  the  scheme 
probably  worked  well.  But  after  they  began 
to  live  apart,  they  had  fewer  opportunities  of 
appreciating  the  ideas  and  feelings  of  even  their 
own  colleges;  and  as  these  became  larger  it 
became  impossible  for  the  Head  to  perform  the 
multifarious  duties  that  had  been  imposed  upon 

299 


CAMBRIDGE 

him  in  simpler  times.  Consequently  the  Heads 
were  constrained,  by  the  necessities  of  their  un- 
fortunate position,  to  separate  themselves  from 
the  rest  of  the  University,  and  to  associate  only 
with  one  another. 

This  preface  is  necessary  for  the  right  under- 
standing of  the  condition  of  Society  which  we 
purpose  briefly  to  illustrate.  What  we  are 
about  to  say  refers,  it  must  be  remembered,  to  a 
state  of  things  which  died  a  natural  death  with 
the  Elizabethan  statutes.  Moreover,  the  persons 
to  whom  our  reminiscences  allude  have  all 
passed  away,  and  these  sayings  and  doings  have 
become  the  common  property  of  the  public. 

Sixty  years  since  society  at  Cambridge  was 
divided  broadly  into  two  classes — those  who 
were  Heads  of  Houses  and  those  who  were  not. 
The  former  were  the  aristocracy ;  and  no  Grand 
Duke  of  a  minute  territory,  no  cathedral  digni- 
tary, no  Head  Master  of  a  great  school — no,  not 
even  Dr.  Keate  himself  in  his  most  aristocratic 
days — was  ever  hedged  about  with  a  more  awful 
dignity,  or  exacted  a  more  implicit  obedience. 
'  You  ought  to  remember,  sir,  the  immeasur- 
able distance  between  an  undergraduate  and  the 
Master  of  his  college,'  said  Dr.  Mansel,  on  a 

300 


THK    SKNATE    HOUSK 

CONFKRRINC; 

DKCREES. 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

certain  occasion,  to  an  unlucky  youngster  who 
ventured  to  address  him.  For  this  speech  there 
might  have  been  some  justification;  but  there 
was  none  for  the  spirit  of  arrogance  and  self- 
assertion  that  was  the  peculiar  characteristic 
of  those  seventeen  oligarchs  towards  even  the 
oldest  and  ablest  of  the  academic  body.  From 
the  hour  that  an  individual  became  Master  of 
his  college,  he  was  raised  (in  his  own  estimation) 
into  a  higher  region,  whence  he  looked  down 
with  contemptuous  pity  on  the  less-favoured 
many,  oven  though  some  of  them  might  have 
been  his  oldest  and  most  intimate  friends. 
Damon  and  Pythias  might  have  taken  their 
daily  walks  together  along  vhe  Trumpington 
Road  for  many  years ;  but  should  Damon  be 
elected  Master,  he  would  next  day  give  Pythias 
two  fingers,  and  address  him  formally  as  Mi\ 
Pythias  in  conversation  or  in  writing.  When 
a  Head  of  a  College  gave  a  dinner-party  sixty 
years  since,  he  invited  Heads  only.  That  excep- 
tions to  this  rule  were  so  rare  that  they  may  be 
neglected  in  a  general  statement  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  Order.  If  such  an  invitation  was 
issued,  it  was  a  royal  command,  and  not  even 
the  death  of  an  intimate  friend  was  admitted  as 

301 


CAMBRIDGE 

an  excuse.  This  exclusiveness  survived  to  com- 
paratively modern  times  to  such  an  extent  that 
even  after  a  more  general  intercourse  was  per- 
mitted, and  Heads  had  begun  to  visit  Professors, 
the  only  son  of  the  host  was  not  allowed  to  dine 
at  his  own  father's  table  because,  forsooth,  the 
Master  of  his  college  was  expected  there  as  a 
guest!  At  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen- 
tury. Dr.  Mansel  had  condescended  to  unbend 
somewhat,  and  to  give  less  solemn  entertain- 
ments. That  august  person  had  six  unmarried 
daughters,  and  possibly  some  thoughts  of  their 
settlement  in  life  may  have  influenced  him. 
Professor  Pryme  relates  that  evening  parties  at 
Trinity  Lodge  were  not  uncommon  at  which 
music  was  given,  and  sometimes  'a  dance  was 
improvised,  for  which  the  Master  would  himself 
turn  an  organ.'  That,  however,  was  in  1809 ; 
but  twenty  years  later  a  far  greater  exclusive- 
ness had  become  the  rule.  So  complete  was  the 
social  severance  between  the  Heads  and  the  rest 
of  the  University  that  considerable  curiosity 
was  felt  by  each  half  of  the  academic  world  as 
to  the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  other.  *  What 
do  you  talk  about  in  your  society ! '  said  the  wife 
of  a  Head  to  the  wife  of  a  Professor  in  1819,  •  is 

302 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

it  amusing  ? '  Just  about  that  time,  however,  a 
bold  innovation  was  made,  which  stirred  the 
University  to  its  depths.  Mr.  Serjeant  Frere 
had  just  been  made  Master  of  Downing,  and, 
being  an  enlightened  person  who  had  passed 
most  of  his  life  in  London,  saw  no  reason  why 
the  good  folks  of  Cambridge  should  not  amuse 
themselves  according  to  the  fashions  of  the 
metropolis.  So  Mrs.  Frere,  who  sang  divinely, 
gave  musical  parties  in  the  Lodge  itself,  and 
tableaux  vivants  also,  which  were  much  admired  ; 
and  at  last  (I  vow  my  hand  shakes  so  with 
horror  at  the  very  thought  of  it  that  I  can 
hardly  make  my  pen  write  down  the  awful 
profanation)  she  got  up  The  Rivals  and  The 
Critic  in  the  College  Hall!  One  of  her  first 
evening  parties  took  place  after  a  solemn  sym- 
posium  given  to  an  assemblage  of  Heads.  They 
had  not  been  made  aware  of  what  was  about  to 
happen,  and  it  was  remarked  afterwards  by  the 
wife  of  one  of  them,  *Some  people  came  in  in 
the  evening — of  course  we  went  away.' 

University  society  is  subject  to  very  frequent 
changes,  as  the  older  members  leave  and  the 
younger  take  their  places.  In  the  second  quarter 
of  the  present  century  it  was  more  than  usually 

303 


CAMBRIDGE 

brilliant.  The  long  dinners  in  College  Hall  had 
been  given  up,  except  on  rare  occasions  of  high 
festival,  and  the  Fellows  delighted  to  go  into 
general  society  of  an  evening.  There  were 
musical  parties,  under  the  auspices  of  Professor 
Smyth  and  Mrs.  Frere,  dramatic  entertainments, 
sparingly  and  somewhat  grudgingly  permitted, 
and  numerous  dinner-parties,  enlivened  by  con- 
versation which  ranged  from  the  deepest  to  the 
lightest  themes.  Men  of  the  highest  literary  and 
scientific  distinction — such  men  as  Dr.  Whewell, 
Dr.  Peacock,  Mr.  Thirlwall,  Dr.  Turton,  Mr.  Hare, 
Mr.  Worsley,  and  Professor  Sedgwick  —  drew 
each  other  out,  capped  each  other's  stories,  or 
took  opposite  sides  in  argument.  At  times, 
especially  if  Dr.  Whewell  were  present,  con- 
versation became  a  monologue.  It  was  said  by 
Sydney  Smith  that  'Science  was  his  forte  and 
conscience  his  foible.'  He  delighted  in  taking 
up  a  subject,  and  delivering  his  opinions  upon  it, 
while  the  rest  of  the  company  listened  respect- 
fully. Some  might  be  disappointed  of  an  oppor- 
tunity for  placing  their  own  witticism,  or  for 
urging  their  own  views ;  but  the  speaker  handled 
his  theme  in  so  masterly  a  style,  that  his  hearers 
accepted  his  despotic  ways  without  a  murmur. 

304 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

Once,  and  once  only,  says  tradition,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  dethrone  him.  A  party  of  the 
Fellows  of  his  own  College  got  up  carefully  the 
subject  of  Chinese  music,  and  adroitly  turned 
the  conversation  towards  it  in  the  Combination 
Room.  .  Mr.  Whewell  joined  in  for  a  while, 
and  then  became  silent,  while  they  went  on, 
delighted  at  the  thought  that  for  once  the  con- 
versation was  in  their  own  hands.  The  triumph, 
however,  was  short-lived,  for  Whewell  presently 
thundered  out, '  Ah !  I  see  you  have  been  getting 
up  an  article  I  wrote  some  years  ago  in  an 
Encyclopaedia;  but  I  have  altered  my  views 
since  then.'  Miss  Caroline  Fox  tells  us  in  her 
charming  diary  that  when  Whewell  met  them 
in  Cornwall  in  1859  her  father  '  got  from  him  a 
formal  contradiction  of  the  choice  story  about 
Chinese  music,  which  was  a  pity,  but  he  says 
he  never  wrote  on  the  subject,  only  on  Greek 
music'  The  imaginary  incident,  however,  is 
very  characteristic  of  Whewell's  astonishing 
familiarity  with  all  sorts  of  out-of-the-way  sub- 
jects; and,  it  may  be  added,  of  his  habit  of 
laying  down  the  law  in  an  imperious  fashion 
which  made  him  extremely  unpopular  with 
those  who  did  not  understand  him.  Professor 
2  Q  305 


CAMBRIDGE 

Sedgwick  did  not  engross  the  conversation  as 
Whewell  did.  His  own  geniality  inspired  those 
with  whom  he  came  into  contact,  and  any  party 
at  which  he  was  present  was  sure  to  go  off  well. 
He  had  a  really  marvellous  aptitude  for  story- 
telling. The  adventures  of  Elizabeth  Woodcock, 
for  instance,  who  was  buried  in  the  snow  near 
Cambridge  in  February  1799,  for  eight  days, 
grew,  in  his  narrative  of  them,  into  a  wonder- 
fully dramatic  story,  humorous  and  pathetic  by 
turns;  and  his  recollections  of  his  earlier  days 
were  as  picturesque  as  they  were  amusing.  One 
of  these,  relating  to  Mr.  William  Pugh,  shall  be 
given  in  his  own  words : 

'  Mr.  Pugh,  before  he  had  been  Fellow  of  Trinity 
for  long  (he  was  elected  about  1790)  was  deeply 
affected  by  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  reading  and  studious  habits  ; 
and,  among  other  things,  was  engaged  upon  the 
catalogue  of  the  printed  books  in  the  University 
Library.  There,  instead  of  reading  only  the  title- 
pages,  he  read  the  works  themselves  through,  and 
thus,  while  he  got  on  slowly  with  the  catalogue,  he 
laid  up  a  vast  store  of  knowledge,  especially  in  the 
pamphlets  published  at  that  time ;  so  much  so,  that 
when  Dr.  Parr  dined  in  Trinity  College  some  thirty 
years  afterwards,  Pugh,  though  he  had  been  mad  in 

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THE 

WOODEN 

SPOON. 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

the  interval,  and  for  twenty  years  had  never  opened 
a  book,  was  yet  able,  from  his  excellent  memory,  to 
quote  pages  and  pages  from  the  pamphlets  of  that 
time.  Pugh  and  Dr.  Parr  were  of  opposite  politics ; 
Pugh  was  a  strong  Conservative,  Parr  an  equally 
strong  Whig ;  so  that  when  the  former  was  seen  to 
take  the  chair  as  Vice-Master,  with  Parr  on  his  right 
hand,  every  one  expected  an  unpleasant  scene.  But, 
luckily,  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  literature 
of  the  early  years  of  the  French  Revolution,  with 
which  Parr  was  equally  well  acquainted.  So  for 
hours  and  hours  they  capped  each  other  with  stories 
and  quotations ;  till  at  last  Pugh  referred  to  a 
pamphlet,  "which,"  said  he,  "I  wonder  had  so  little 
influence,  and  so  little  popularity:  for  I  was  very 
much  struck  with  one  passage  in  particular ;  and  if 
you  woiild  like  to  hear  it,  Dr.  Parr,  I  think  I  can 
repeat  it  to  you."  He  then  proceeded  to  repeat  with- 
out hesitation  about  a  page  and  a  half,  after  which 
he  rose  to  go,  and  turning  to  Dr.  Parr,  said,  "  I  thank 
you,  Doctor,  for  the  very  pleasant  evening  we  have 
had  together ;  and  as  for  that  pamphlet,  I  think  you 
know  more  of  the  author  than  I  do."  So  saying,  he 
left  the  room.  When  he  was  gone,  Parr  said,  "  I  was 
the  author  of  that  pamphlet,  but  it  fell  dead.  I  have 
never  read  it  since,  and  I  give  you  my  honour  that 
I  could  not  have  repeated  a  line  of  it  myself." 

'  Well,  about  his  madness.  For  a  long  while  he 
was  very  strange ;  he  dreaded  the  society  of  every- 
body ;   he   never   left  his   rooms  for  any  purpose 

807 


CAMBRIDGE 

whatever;  he  would  not  let  his  bed-maker  enter 
them,  but,  at  a  stated  hour  every  day,  used  to  open 
the  door  a  little,  take  in  his  breakfast,  and  slam  it  to 
again.  One  morning,  very  early,  he  was  seen  by 
the  porter  to  walk  across  the  court  in  a  mistrustful 
manner,  looking  behind  him,  and  to  the  right  and 
left,  with  the  utmost  circumspection,  and  so  go  into 
the  Bowling  Green,  which  in  those  days  was  not 
closed  with  a  grating  as  it  is  now.  On  his  shoulders 
he  carried  a  large  white  bundle.  This  he  was  seen 
to  carry  to  the  terrace  overlooking  the  river,  and 
there  pitch  it  over  into  the  Cam.  Search  was  made 
for  it,  and  it  was  fished  up.  It  was  found  to  contain 
all  his  dirty  linen,  remains  of  his  food,  etc.,  which 
had  become  too  foul  to  be  endured  longer.  This  was 
not  thought  sufficient  proof  of  insanity  to  warrant 
his  being  sent  out  of  residence.  Soon  after,  how- 
ever, the  town  was  thrown  into  consternation  by  the 
frequent  breaking  of  the  lamps.  Night  after  night 
several  were  found  broken,  no  one  knew  by  whom. 
The  Mayor  offered  a  reward,  but  still  the  culprit 
remained  undetected.  At  last  the  College  porter 
observed  that  Pugh  was  in  the  habit  of  going  out 
after  the  gates  were  closed.  So  a  servant  was  set  to 
watch,  and,  the  next  time  Pugh  went  out,  followed 
him  at  a  distance.  He  went  down  Jesus  Lane,  and, 
when  he  came  to  the  Common,  turned  to  the  left 
along  Jesus'  Ditch.  There  he  presently  went  down 
to  the  water's  edge,  and,  from  among  flags  and 
weeds,  brought  up  a  long  stick.    This  he  seized,  and 

.808  . 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

hurried  back  to  the  street.  No  sooner  had  he  got 
there  than  the  frenzy  seemed  to  seize  him.  He 
gnashed  his  teeth,  and  rushed  along  like  a  madman. 
Presently  he  caught  sight  of  a  lamp,  made  for  it,  and 
exclaiming  with  a  loud  oath  "You  are  Robespierre ! " 
dashed  it  to  pieces  with  his  stick.  So  he  went  on 
with  the  others,  crying  out  "Dan ton  !"  "St.  Justl" 
and  other  names,  till  he  had  broken  six  or  eight. 
Then  he  returned  to  the  ditch,  hid  his  stick,  and 
made  his  way  back  to  College.  After  this  he  was 
requested  to  leave,  and  put  under  the  care  of  a 
keeper.  He  recovered,  however,  and  returned  to 
College,  and,  though  he  had  still  a  somewhat  wild 
look,  behaved  with  ijerfect  propriety.  His  judgment 
was  considered  extremely  good,  and  in  the  Fellow- 
ship Examination  his  opinion  was  preferred  to  that 
of  most  other  examiners.  His  memory  was  such  that 
he  could  trust  to  it  when  others  had  to  refer  to  the 
author,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Greek  tragedians.' 

With  this  anecdote  our  reminiscences  of  the 
Social  Life  of  Cambridge  sixty  years  since  must 
come  to  an  end.  When  those  of  the  present 
decade  are  written  the  annalist  who  takes  the 
subject  in  hand  will  have  a  very  different  pic- 
ture to  draw.  He  will  find  the  number  of  under- 
graduates more  than  doubled,  and  engaged  in  a 
multiplicity  of  studies  and  interests,  which  offer 

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CAMBRIDGE 

a  lively  contrast  to  the  sameness  of  the  course 
along  which  their  ancestors  were  compelled  to 
plod.  He  will  have  to  notice,  too,  the  realisa- 
tion of  the  dreams  of  that  Princess  whose  educa- 
tional views  were  set  forth  by  the  Poet  Laureate  ; 
and  though  there  are  as  yet  no  'sweet  girl 
graduates'  tripping  to  the  Senate  House  on 
Degree  Day,  there  are  signs  which  indicate  that 
even  that  alteration  may  be  nearer  than  some 
suppose.  In  the  opinion  of  many  excellent  well- 
wishers  to  Cambridge  the  death-knell  of  her 
fame  as  a  place  of  education  would  be  sounded 
if  this  were  to  be  brought  about,  or  if  in  sundry 
other  ways  that  we  need  not  further  particu- 
larise she  were  to  accept  changes  that  begin  to 
be  demanded,  with  no  uncertain  sound,  from 
without.  We  do  not  share  these  apprehensions ; 
we  believe  firmly  that 

•  The  old  order  changeth,  giving  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfils  Himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world.' 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constablk,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


A    000  164  243    8 


